Can you lay slate tile over sheet vinyl flooring?

This is from the tile installers hand book .. If the vinyl if a non cushioned vinyl and its glued straight to a wood sub floor, you can go over it with 1/2" cement board product. This must be properly installed, thinsetted down and 1 1/2" galvanized roofing nails or screws.

NEVER use 1/4" backer board. This does not met tile structural codes and the minimum 1 1/4" total substrate thats needed for tile. ( 3/4" wood sub floor plus 1/2" backer board)

If the vinyl is over a thin wood backer ( usually 1/4" plywood) this must be then taken up. This allows to much cushion and actually gaps and spaces between the 2 wood floors allowing movement.

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Installing Slate Tile

You MUST lay the slate tile over a cement board. It's easy enough to remove the vinyl floor and underlayment. Then use a 1/4 inch hardi backer cement board screwed down into the subfloor using hardibacker screws and fill the seams with a gray thinset. Once the thinset is dry, you can install the 6 x 6 slate tiles into a wet troweled 1/4 in layer of fresh thinset, troweled evenly. You'll also have to have a wet saw to cut the edge tiles.

and for the genius rob, below me, he forgets the thinset is 1/4 inch thick as well. why do you think they MAKE 1/4 hardibacker? the 1/2 backer is for WALLS! besides that, if you were to but up to hardwoods evenly, you'd only be able to use 1/4 hardibacker.

You should remove the vinyl floor and lay down a 1/4 sheet of Durarock and install slate over the Durarock.

No- you will need to either remove it or affix a cement backer board over the vinyl flooring if the vinyl flooring cannot be easily removed. But for the best job- the vinyl should come off.

No, you don't have to take up the old vinyl. Just buy some Luan (very thin plywood) and nail that to the existing floor and when you are finished with that, make sure that the floor is absolutely clean before setting the new tile.

Yup. It sucks but the slate will sit better and provide firmer floor if you remove the old stuff.

No shortcuts. Get rid of vinyl.

you can you just need to bond it