I can't advise you on this, but the Home Depot says that you can.
So I tiled over top of both of my formica bathroom counters and have had no problems at all with them. One is eight foot wide. I used tile mastic and they stuck just fine.
My cabinets and countertop are in good shape and was able to support the tile with no problems.
But Tausif is right, if your countertops and cabinets are not in good shape, then they won't be able to support the weight. But as long as they are not falling apart, it shouldn't be a problem. Ceramic tile is much lighter weight than porcelain or marble.
If the formica is the type that is really slick, I suppose you would need to sand it a bit, "as you mentioned", before laying the tile. Mine were not that slick so I didn't have to sand them.
The surface needs to be water resistant to apply the tile over. Otherwise, you would have to make a new countertop using backerboard, greenboard or concrete board as Tausif suggested and would have to first lay plywood underneath the board to achieve the desired thickness of the countertop. Usually about 1 &1/4 inches total.
You can however, remove the old backsplash and use tile on the wall for a better looking backsplash.
I used 6x6" tiles on the countertop and 6x4 inch kickers for the backsplash because my walls were not perfectly square.
Tile layers generally use kickers for the tile baseboard. They have a slight curve at the bottom of each tile.
This is only my experience here, other people might have a different opinion. Don't want to step on anyones' toes.
There is a lot of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment to be had when doing your own home improvement projects. Hope you enjoy the experience.
So I tiled over top of both of my formica bathroom counters and have had no problems at all with them. One is eight foot wide. I used tile mastic and they stuck just fine.
My cabinets and countertop are in good shape and was able to support the tile with no problems.
But Tausif is right, if your countertops and cabinets are not in good shape, then they won't be able to support the weight. But as long as they are not falling apart, it shouldn't be a problem. Ceramic tile is much lighter weight than porcelain or marble.
If the formica is the type that is really slick, I suppose you would need to sand it a bit, "as you mentioned", before laying the tile. Mine were not that slick so I didn't have to sand them.
The surface needs to be water resistant to apply the tile over. Otherwise, you would have to make a new countertop using backerboard, greenboard or concrete board as Tausif suggested and would have to first lay plywood underneath the board to achieve the desired thickness of the countertop. Usually about 1 &1/4 inches total.
You can however, remove the old backsplash and use tile on the wall for a better looking backsplash.
I used 6x6" tiles on the countertop and 6x4 inch kickers for the backsplash because my walls were not perfectly square.
Tile layers generally use kickers for the tile baseboard. They have a slight curve at the bottom of each tile.
This is only my experience here, other people might have a different opinion. Don't want to step on anyones' toes.
There is a lot of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment to be had when doing your own home improvement projects. Hope you enjoy the experience.
