apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I've done it.

The tile I was covering was weird-colored 1" squares, adhered with some indestructible nightmarish black asphalt-like goo from the 1950s. Ripping it up would have taken a week, I think. For the new tile I used VCT (largely because it's thin, slightly flexible over time, and durable as heck). The whole thing was pretty much trivial.

Note, however, that this may create a height transition in the doorway. This wasn't a problem for me, as it worked out to be something like 1/16th of an inch, but your situation may differ. Note also that if you use inflexible materials, you may have trouble with cracking later on unless you lay down a nice base of tile compound first to level everything out.

Contractors do this all the time (not that I agree with it)! It all depends on the material you are trying to cover and the ability of the mastic/mortar to stick to it. I has worked for me on occassion but using this method is sometimes a headache...I had my floor guy place slate over some really glossy ceramic floors after sanding etc. in a rental property I used to have...after about 3 weeks some of the slate began to pop up. So if you can remove whats below you will be glad with the results.

Yes! I used river rocks/stones as in the photo above. To save money I used REAL stones, not prefab tile, so I had to meticulously select flat stones one by one. Even after having selected smooth ones, walking on them takes some getting used to. It makes for a very natural feeling shower experience! :-)

I remodeled my bathroom myself and tiled over tile without problem. I went over white subway tiles with 12x12 stone. My only caution is that you don't get the same amount of adhesion to a polished tile as you would backer-board. So I would only do this if you are putting up larger tiles so the surface area is better for adhesion (much like when you get two wet plates stuck together). The only real downside is that you'll lose 1/2 inch of space due to tile thickness (which is slightly noticeable in small places like the shower, but was no big deal to me).

I tiled right over blue and white tile with marble--looks clean and amazing..make sure the floor is level!

The only advantage to installing new ceramic floor tile over the old one is your downstairs neighbor won't hear any noise.
Contractors who tell you it's ok are plain lazy or they don't know much about tiling.

how about tiling over a really ugly backsplash?

So if I do want to remove the older tile - what's the best way to do it without destroying all the fixtures?