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How to Remove Tile

Learn how to remove tile with less dust and save some money. Are you like me and have received an astronomical bid for tile replacement? How would you like to save three dollars to five fifty per square foot on your tile job? That’s how much you can save if you do the demolition. You can do it using hand tools or power tools.

It’s a dusty, piece of work. But when you know how to remove it your wallet will enjoy the savings every time one of those tiles comes out whole. So let’s find out how to keep some money in your wallet.

Safety equipment needed

You are chipping away at the ceramic material. There will be plenty of small needle-like pieces flying everywhere. You definitely want to protect your eyes. Use safety glasses that have side shield type protection.

Wear leather gloves to protect your hands. Wear long sleeves to protect your forearms. You will be on your knees for this job so knee pads will help keep your knees safe from ceramic particles.

This job will be dusty so an appropriate respirator is needed to protect your lungs.

If you plan on using a power tool to speed up the job, use earplugs to protect your hearing.

Tools Needed

First, let’s talk tools you will need for the job. If you have a small job like a bathroom or a bedroom you can get by with hand tools. If you have large rooms(as in multiple) you may want to consider powered tools.

Large tile area tools to consider

Prepare for lots of dust

Remove any furniture or appliances from the room. Seal up any HVAC ducts to prevent contaminating the rest of the house with dust.

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Hang plastic to block dust

Hang plastic on any opening to other places in the house. This simple technique will help keep your house cleaner with less dust during the demolition period. The technique is covered in Prepping for drywall texturing. If you want to continue to use the opening during demolition overlap two pieces of plastic by several feet in the center of the opening to create a pass-thru opening.

Materials needed for hanging plastic

cardboard strips
stapler or hammer tacker
1/2″–9/16″ staples
sheet plastic or drop cloths

prepping for drywall texturing A cardboard flap cut from box approximately 7 inches wide

prepping for drywall texturing Cut into two pieces

prepping for drywall texturing Each half cut into strips

prepping for drywall texturing Approximately 1 inch wide

prepping for drywall texturing Plastic wrapped over the cardboard and tacked to the wall using a hammer tacker

prepping for drywall texturing Finished product, ready to work on the ceiling

Dust Control and floor grinding

A stiff broom, a square point shovel or dustpan work well for picking up the broken tile and depositing it in the buckets for transport outside.

Do you have an angle grinder? It can be used to remove any residual thinset once the tiles have been removed. A diamond cup grinding wheel is what you will need. There will be a lot of dust but you can put a dust shroud on the grinder that will allow you to connect the shop vacuum to it. It will remove the dust before it can get into the air. Use a shop vacuum dust bag to reduce dust if the vacuum is in the home. If possible, if you have a really long hose you can place the shop vacuum outdoors so any fine dust is not spread in the house.

How to remove baseboard

Baseboard in the tile area can be left in place if you plan on using a 1/4 round trim to cover the tile edges at the walls. If you don’t want to use a 1/4 round trim you will need to remove the baseboards.

Use a razor blade knife to cut the caulking from the wall and baseboards. You can use two tools(one scraper and one putty knife) to pry the baseboard from the wall.

“What’s the difference between a putty knife and a paint scraper? They both look the same, scrapers have a stiff blade that is too stiff for the application of putty. Putty knives have a thinner blade that is too flexible for scraping.“

Insert the putty knife between the drywall and baseboard.
Insert the scraper between the putty knife and the baseboard.
The putty knife will protect the drywall as you pry the scraper against the baseboard.
Once you have a gap between the wall and the baseboard use a flat pry bar against the putty knife to remove it.
Number the back of the baseboards and create a sketch of the room(s) with their number locations on the sketch(so you don’t have to rely on memory).

Reusing Baseboards?
Pull nails thru the baseboards rather than pulling them out. There will be less splintering and a lot less patching and painting required.

This procedure covers how to remove ceramic floor tile. It will also work for other kinds of hard flooring.

Where to start

Look for a place where the bottom of the tile is exposed maybe a threshold or where there is a transition from a different flooring material. Use the hammer and chisel to break a tile or two to start. Then you should be able to get your chisel easily below the tiles for removal. Remember to use the chisel properly(bevel grind side down) so that it does not gouge the surface below the tile.

When removing tile it will be very easy to gouge the material beneath the tile with the chisel. Exercise caution as you will want to reuse this material to save even more of your hard-earned money. It is important to work the chisel as parallel to the floor as possible to minimize any gouging. Any minor nicks and gouges will be filled with thinset when the new tile is installed.

Using Power Tools to remove tiles

Using power tools is going to speed up your job a lot versus doing it with hand tools. You can rent tools if you don’t wish to purchase them. I find that if the tool has more than one use, buying it will make it available for future projects and the cost of ownership drops. If you’re going to use it once and no more then renting is the best option.

If you own an air hammer this may be the path for you. While the recommendation is for a long stroke air hammer, the air hammer you have may be enough. You can also buy a medium stroke air hammer that will have more impact at around twenty dollars. Buy a chisel attachment and that should make short work of removing the tiles.

An electric hammer drill with a hammer only mode with a chisel added on will also be a good option for this job. An added benefit is that both these power tools, the air hammer and the hammer drill have a ton of other uses for future projects.

There exists extended air chipping tile removers but I can’t recommend them. This is because their air requirements are so large that most people will not own an air compressor that can satisfy their air demand(10-15 CFM at 90 PSI). Should you go this route with an underpowered air compressor you will spend a lot of time waiting for the air compressor to catch up to the demand with very little work accomplished.

A word on chisel width

I would not go to wide on a chisel used with a short stroke air hammer as it could make tile removal a longer process. A two-inch chisel should produce a concentrated enough blow that it will cause the tile to release it’s hold on the thinset/mastic or break up. Anything wider and the power of the blows will be diluted over a larger surface area and it may take longer to remove the same tile.

After the tile is gone the same chisel can be used to remove the thinset. When the floor is clear of tile, inspect the underlayment for protruding nails/screws. Use tile underlayment screws or ring shank nails if your tile has been laid over a wood surface.

A Review

Chisel for Tile
July 25, 2017
Verified Purchase
Used to remove tile and backboard from a 12 by 20 kitchen. Has a slide offset in the bit to make it easier to work under the tile. Tired hammers, chisels, pry bars… this was to tool that got it done. Good metal, kept its edge.
BTricke Amazon.com review

Disposal of Floor Tile

Now that you know how to remove tile from the floor, you’ll want to consider your disposal options. You will not have much physical material volume that needs to go to waste. The material you do have will be rather heavy for its volume. Weight is going to be the limiting factor at this disposal.

The normal waste bins can only hold so much before they become to heavy for the garbage truck to lift. Do not fill a bin to the top. Your waste removal company will not be able to pick it up and you will have to empty it. Be prepared to dispose of your tile in multiple pickups if you choose this option.
A local landfill location will take the tile but you will need to get it to them. You will need a pickup truck that can handle the weight and a good friend to get the tile there and help unload it quickly.
A waste disposal bag is another option. The bag’s capacity of 3 cubic yards and 3300 lbs it is a good option for light debris but for tile it is limited to one cubic yard under their heavy debris rating for broken tile. There will be an added collection fee if the service is available in your area. The ad below has links to the bagster system where you can check if service is available in your area.

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RayC.

Editor at Mybusyretiredlife.com

Trained in the mechanical arts. I have worked on anything dealing with a home from changing a light bulb to moving a load bearing wall. As for the recipes, they came about after I could not find what I was looking for and recipes that over a lifetime I have come to love and want to share with the world.