Q  -  I want to tear out my old floor, which is linoleum. I’m almost positive it is glued town to a 1/4 OSB, nailed down to the sub floor. I’m gonna tear out the OSB and put down 1/4″ cement board. Then I will install the tile. The tile will be thicker than the current floor, so my question is what do I do around the toilet??  I haven’t taken the toilet off to see what it is like. The house is only 20 years or so old, so the plumbing is all PVC pipe and actually done pretty decent. Any ideas before I tear into it?  Thanks.
Shaun – La Porte

A  -  Before the easy answer to your question, the very first step in tiling over wood framing is to check the deflection of the joists to make sure the floor can handle the tile without cracking. Ceramic tiles need a minimal deflection of L320,and natural stone needs a minimal deflection of L720. Natural stone also needs 1.25″ thickness of the proper plywood.
The John Bridge Tile Forum has a handy dandy deflecto-meter you can use to figure out the first step. The Pro’s on that site will be able to handle every aspect of your tiling project.
The flange for the toilet should set atop the tile or be at that height. You can accomplish that by adding an extension ring to the flange, replace the flange, or use an extra thick wax ring provided the underside of your toilet isn’t extra deep.