Flooring Tile - 18 x 18 ceramic tile

Had tile laid years ago in my home, have an area I want to tile, approx. 3 x 7.
This area was a porch (not part of the interior of the house) that had at one time indoor outdoor carpeting glued to it. You can see the lines from the carpeting.
First question, Do I need to prepare the floor first?
Second question, does thinset get old? We have a bag left over from when we had this tile laid about 6 years ago. It has been stored in a shed in Fl. since then.
Third question, does grout get old? We have a bag of this left also.

Thank you for all your help.

1) get the adhesive scraped up to just a staining. Do not clean with solvents.

2) If you haven't checked in 6 years, with your humidity, it's a rock. Even if it isn't a rock, it's no good. 1 year under good conditions for an openned bag.

3) ditto #2

Wood or concrete floor?:)

Floor is concrete.

Sorry, in my first post, it should say floor is now part of the interior.

:o Help!! :eek:

Okay here is what REALLY happened, I couldnt figure out why the tile did not stick to the floor, okay, now I know the thinset was way too old to use. So now I am chipping up the old thinset ( I just picked up the tile with a little prying with my hands).

Do I need to get ever bit of the thinset up? Or as long as it is stuck to the floor and I cant chisel it away will the new thinset ( I bought a bag of fortified thinset mortar) to it?

:eek:

Rent a floor grinder and get it all up. You want a very smooth surface for large format tiles. When you redo it, use a 1/2" x1/2" square notch trowel. If the tiles have large lugs on the back, flat trowel the tile backs to fill the lugs before setting them. An angle gringer will clean up the tile backs.