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Hello hive mind! I thought I would try tiling my kitchen floor but I have a concern… The reason we are retiling is because I tried to spruce up the old ones with tile paint (reputable brand that seemed to offer a robust system), but the paint started peeling up very quickly in areas, particularly near the external door and washing machine (see photo). I tried again, diligently degreasing and keying up everywhere and being overly cautious with drying times, and the same happened. So I removed the flaky parts and we’ve just lived with it for over a year. Now we’ve got hold of some nice new encaustic tiles that were on sale, and about to get stuck in installing them. We were thinking of just tiling straight over the old ones, as the nice new kitchen cabinets (installed 2 years ago) stand on top of the current tiles, we thought it would just be simpler to tile up to the legs (the kick board would hide this anyway), and that the current tiles would give a nice level base. However it’s started playing on my mind as to why the paint didn’t stick to the tiles…might it be a problem with damp? Perhaps moisture within the substrate? If the tile primer didn’t stick then why would the slurry bonding coat? I have a feeling you’ll say pull up the tiles… I think it’ll be concrete below, but to be honest I have no idea what horrors may be waiting under there. When we had damp treated in the walls and then a new kitchen installed, we found out this extended part of the house (over 50YO, with no paperwork), is one brick between us and the neighbour (the electrician accidentally drilled a hole into the neighbours kitchen yikes!) so who knows what else may be discovered! Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance!

so I've tiled all our bathrooms / ensuites (3 of them) - floors, walls, trim etc etc. I'm not a tiler so it took a while but it looks good (a pro tiler's comments - not my own opinion) - up to @Onoff standards I'd say... Its Q a few m2. So to downstairs, 100m2 of floor tiling to do - poured screed floor that's level and in general nice big areas; much bigger tiles as well. But I've got a full time job so tiling would happen at weekends and evenings BUT there's plenty else to do - 2nd fix elecs to do, bathroom furniture to fit & plumb in, skirting to fit, whole house to paint etc etc so I thought I'd ask about getting a pro tiler in to do downstairs. How does £25/m2 sound for applying primer, spreading adhesive, tiles down, grouting and cleaning? It seems to be about 7m2/day and using 600x600 tiles that doesn't seem a lot to me. He's a one man band so he does everything - cutting tiles, mixing adhesive etc. I thought the cost could be rebadged as an early Xmas gift to myself..... Any thoughts?