laying new vinyl over old?

the surface(patterned) layer on our 10-year old kitchen vinyl flooring has started to flake off. It's sheet/rolled vinyl (or linoleum) and we want to lay new vinyl down- can we cover this old with the new? Should we first fill in the small areas where the surface has flaked off? (largest area is about 4"x 5") If so, what would we use to fill those areas?
We got one estimate so far- contractor said he's have to tear up & replace the luan/ subfloor. That triples the cost of the floor itself, plus we don't want to invite possibilities of uneven install, since the current floor has no imperfection- no squeaks, creaks,etc. We understand that this vinyl flooring was glued down and so the subfloor may suffer some damage removing the linoleum, but replacing the entire subfloor seems excessive & inflates the cost to where it's no longer an option.
Thanks for any input.

 

Remember, any imperfection will show through. Yes, there are products that you can use to fill the holes. Or you can use one of the loose lay IVC type vinyls. I have installed vinyl over vinyl many times.

 

Thanks for the reply Sam; I would want to shy away from looses lay; since it will have lots of traffic (main entry from garage to the house) I'd prefer something with zero chance of slippage so gluing is our choice. I spoke with the flooring guy at the local orange box store and explained what the contractor said. He also said that to insure their warranty that they issue with the flooring, they would tear up the luan with the old vinyl & replace the luan before laying new vinyl. I offered to waive any warranty and sign off all paperwork, to save my subflooor but he declined. So it appears that we will have to try and lay our first vinyl flooring ourselves since the pros won't do it without tearing out/replacing the old subfloor, which makes this project unaffordable to us.
Don't have much confidence in local big box store on this topic, so what products would we use to fill the surface holes? They're probably about 1/32" in depth so not that much.
Then I guess we will have to learn how to lay vinyl.

 

The IVC vinyls can be glued and are DIY friendly.

Watch Installation Movie: Vinyl Flooring... an Extreme Home Makeover

 

-sounds encouraging and thanks again; what type of product should we look for to fill in the shallow holes where the surface has flaked off?

 

Not sure if this is the correct product for this area or not but check the web for "Ardex Featherfinish". It is a cement based product that is designed to be installed in very thin layers (hense the name). This is a very good product but I am not sure if it is the correct product for this situation. Whatever you end up finding and using I would be reluctant to use any gypsum based products because they break down when they get exposed to any moisture. Of course the downside is that the gypsum products are said to be easier to work with for the DIYer.