ask yourself

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what do you think?

do you take off your old socks before putting the new socks on?

do you clean your lunch plate before serving dinner?

sounds like you have a lazy tileman, makes you wonder how much effort he is going to put into this job, considering removing the old vynil would probally take all of an hour and a few garbage bags

i would be suspect of any so called craftsman that works in such a way as not to do a simple thing as to remove the old vinyl tiles, which BTW are not intended as a permenant life long flooring covering before installing expensive long lasting granite

would you not mind a few problems with this floor in the long term, like lifting tiles, cracked tiles, grout cracking at the joints. then by all means lay on top of the crumby plastic tiles

if your looking for a problem feee installation over the years. then make it clear that you expect the old floor covering to be scraped up and the sub floor inspected before your new floor is layed

i would be concerned about inspecting the subfloor for hidden damage like water damage, delaminating plywood, soft spots, and what ever else will be visable to the naked eye after your floor man puts the time(1 or 2 hours) and effort into doing the job right and pull up that old covering

let us know all the excuses he comes up with as he tryes to worm out of this simple task but hold your ground

i replaced 4 tiles this last week here on long island in a 5 year old 50k kitchen renovation in sands point. she had 4 tiles cracked right in front of the fridge, unknown to homeowner and me there was old vinyl under the cermanic 12x12 she had layed with the renovation

contractor took advantage of her and cut corners by not removing that crap, now she had to pay me to replace the 4 cracked tiles that were a direct result, in my opinion to the old covering left in place, soft and unlevel worn out vinyl

anyways if you decide not to heed my profesional advice make sure you have alot of extra tiles and grout for future repairs when the job starts lifting and cracking a few years down the road

the sands point lady had only 5 extra tiles and no grout, we matched the grout pretty good, although now she has only 1 extra left for future problems should they arise, and i told and showed her the old tiles under the new floor, her jaw dropped, 50k kitchen job and the crooks left the vinyl! a crew of 3 tile guys could scrape her floor(about 5-600 sq ft) down to the sub floor in about 2 hours.

let us know jean

dp