Can I lay ceramic tile over linoleum?

When you are ready to lay ceramic tile in a room that already has a linoleum floor, the temptation is to lay the ceramic tile over the linoleum and save yourself some work. However, if you actually lay that ceramic floor over linoleum, you will end up causing more problems than you will be solving. Linoleum expands and contracts with the weather. This will crack your grout and loosen the adhesive holding down your tile. Linoleum can also crack and peel when it is covered by another substance. This will cause your ceramic floor to come up. The best approach is to remove the linoleum floor and apply your ceramic right to a wood sub-floor.