tile over hardwood floors

[deejal]

I am getting ready to tile another room in a 125 year old house.

The current floor is hardwood....in decent condition. I just don't like hardwood and prefer the warmth of heated ceramic tile.

Is it ok to simply leave the hardwood floor intact, install the cemement (hardi backerboard), then install the ceramic tile? The floor is already pretty level and I do not intend to use any floor leveler because of the added weight. The center beam was cut over 80+ years ago and there are already two steel support beams in the house.

I realize that their will be some added heighth transitioning from the tile to the carpet but a reducer will solve that problem.

Finally, when I remodeled the kitchen floor, I used mortar (versabond) to install the cement board. Then I used floor leveler ontop of the cement board. Finally, I used mastic to secure the ceramic tile to the floor leveler. I have now been told that I should NOT use mastic but rather mortar because the tile, cement board and the hardwood floor "need to act as one" so there are no problems down the line. Is this true? Should I use mortar to secure the tiles as well? Since I will more than likely NOT be using any floor leveler in this particular room, I assume I can install the tile directly on top of the cement board.

Thanks for your help. I am glad that I stumbled upon this site.