tracey, did you post this on the bathroom forum? There are some tile experts over there that may have a little extra information to share with you. I know there are people on this board who have tiled their baths, but just wanted to mention the bath forum in case you hadn't posted there.

On the quarter round question, yes, that has to be removed. I'm not sure you have to pull up the old flooring. You most probably can put the backerboard right on top. Like I said, check with the experts though just to make sure. My DH is a contractor but, he's not home right now for me to ask.

Thanks for the reply, Brutuses. I did post on the bath forum awhile back, but after the first answer, I felt a little "dumb" with my type of questions. I'll try again.

Are the vanities going to be replaced? Can they be removed, or are they built in? You might consider tiling under them if they can be removed. I put in the peel & stick vinyl in one bathroom and the vanity was super easy to remove, so I took it out before putting down the vinyl, because I might want to replace that vanity later (Ok, if I do that, I'll totally redo that bathroom, but that's not in the works yet). In the other bathroom we gutted it except for the tub and we just laid backerboard over the old vinyl. We put in a new vanity, and it sits on top of the tile. We just put silicone between the tiles and the tub after I grouted them.

Thanks, Pesky, but no--the vanities are staying. The rest of the bath doesn't need to be updated, we just want to get tile down in the bath like we should've done in the first place. I was just wondering now how much PIA it was gonna be to do it right.

bump - I would like to know about this too!

We just had our master bath rooms tiled after living with vinyl flooring for 18 years. We also have built-in vanities that stayed. You DO NOT have to remove the vinyl flooring, the backerboard is installed directly on top of the vinyl.

Yes, the quarter-round molding does need to be ripped out. We did not have to remove any door trim, and did not have to remove door jambs because there were none to begin with. If you have door jambs, they would need to be removed, also.

The only major prep that we had to do was remove all 4 doors, and once the tile was installed and grout cured, the bottom of the doors had to be cut down to accommodate the raised flooring height.

I love the new tile, and wish I'd done it years earlier, it's so much easier to take care of and looks great.

Didn't tile a bathroom, but did do our kitchen (DIY).

One other item to consider is the height of the new tile floor - by the time you add backerboard, thinset/mortar, tile, etc, you're going to gain about an inch or so. That might be an argument for pulling up the existing floor/subfloor. But that isn't necessarily required, if it's sound and you don't mind the (potential) elevation change.

Personally, I would pull out the vanity temporarily and tile under it. It can look a little odd to lose part of the bottom of the vanity to tile (this also facilitates installation - a consideration if you're going to DIY). Same thing with a toilet, though you said you were going to replace that.

You would remove any molding that touches the floor - quarter round, baseboard, door casing, etc. Label them carefully as you take them off, if you're going to reuse them! LOL Once the new tile is in, dried, grouted, etc, these would get reinstalled (and would likely need cut to a new height/length).

Depending on the clearance you have under your doors now, they may or may not need cut down in height. If they're not solid doors (i.e. are hollow-core), there's a definite limit to how far they can be cut down.

Depending on how mathematically inclined you are, look into "deflection ratings" for tiles (or ask the flooring forum). That will give you some idea about what type of subfloor, etc, you should be looking into.

I've done our bathroom and our laundry room, and have studied tile installation a bit...

Before I reply, though, I do have some questions: what did you not understand on the baths forum? I found that if I didn't understand something, it would eventually come back to bite me in the backside, so it was best that I school myself to a complete ability to visualize the process, with completely written down POA, before I started. Knowledge is definitely power in this case.

Another question: is this bath on a different floor from the others, e.g. on the second whereas the tiled floors are on the first? Or are there other tiled floors on the same story of your house?

You really do need to find out what the subfloor is, too, to know, among other things, if you can use tile (stone has heavier requirements) or if you have to reinforce the joists there.

Have you been to the John Bridge "deflectolator"? (or deflectomatic or something like that)? It may be confusing at the start, but the *John Bridge Forum* is invaluable for installing tile. Follow someone's project that is like yours from beginning to end and you'll have a much clearer sense of what you're about to do.

Here is a link that might be useful: even connected you straight to it :)