Tiling over glue or lino?

[James Bailey]

Hi guys,

Writing my first post here. I've been watching for a long time but didn't have much to say until I bought my first house which I just got the keys for yesterday! congratulations to me woohoo. couldn't have done it without all of you guys! Thanks.
 
So as soon as the renters in the
basement left for work I started ripping up my carpet in the entrance of the house so I could replace it with some nice porcelain tile. It's about 100 square feet including the entranceway, 6 steps and a landing. i have pictures but dont see an option to post it on here...

Anyway, under the carpet there was a ridiculous amount of yellow glue, as if that carpet alone was holding the entire house together. It's STILL STICKY to the touch. the carpet was mostly glued to plywood but in a small section it was glued down to some linoleum. 

I've been looking all over the web and mostly just run into people arguing with eachother. No time for that and DEFINATELY no time to scrape all that glue up, the lino isnt going to budge either without some kind of blood sacrifice.

I have to get these tiles in! Got a wicked deal and there's no refunds! 

I know atleast one of you smart folks has ran into this problem and did something clever which will save my *** and impress everyone so let's hear it! Thanks in advance for the help, and thanks for having me.
 

James

[Michael Clanton]

Hi James, you are going to need to install a backer board material as an underlayment before setting, or installing, your tile. Assuming that the glue you're describing is fully cured and bonded well to the subfloor, but just has a tacky feel to the touch, I would probably just install the backer board material over the glue, as long as there are no very high "peaks" in the glue that would cause uneven contact or bond between the plywood subfloor and the backer board. Get enough thinset material to apply under the backer board with at least a 3/8" notch trowel, and nail or screw the board down as instructed on the stickers found on the material. I doubt very seriously you will have any problems with that, as long as the glue is firmly bonded to the plywood, and the backer is installed correctly. 

Also, congrats on your first purchase!