Removing ceramic tiles

[jon]

I have been asked to remove tiles from bathroom plastered wall The question has probably been asked before,does anyone know of an easy way to do this? please

[reg]

get the wife to do it & put yer feet up couldnt get any easier then that ;o)

[Fat Freddy's Cat]

hammer, bolster... the only two tools you need.

Then get a plasterer in to skim the mess thats left behind.

g.

[John T]

If you can afford one, (or borrow, or hire, or steal!) a Fein Multimaster is a handy bit of kit for this type of job. If not you probably need a hammer and chisel, but try prying them loose first with a thin blade. If you cant pry them off or cut them off with a Multimaster and a suitable blade, you will have a job and a half replastering, which is why so many pwople re tile on top of old tiles!

John

[Brian G]

Jon,

Personally I find the easiest way is simply to give the first tile a 'clout' with a hammer to crack it (if there's a tile already broken or fallen off, then it's even better), remove the pieces and then slip something like a painters scraper or a large, flat bladed screwdriver under the edge of the remaining tiles and gently lever them away from the wall.

Not the quickest of methods, but it seems to cause minimum damage to the wall and works for all but the awkward beggars that require a bit more force.

Brian G

[the_constructor]

Well believe it or not, I started to remove the tiles in my bathroom. The previous occupier had tiled on tiles using a 5 blob system. The original tiles were fixed properly.. I used a tack lifter and removed practically all the tiles, both layers, in tact.

[curious]

I used this method but also kept the wall behind the tiles fairly wet to soften the adhesive. It worked quite well.

[Brianb]

Seeing as you're bound to have a few stubborn tiles that could break the plasterboard, why not use a crowbar and remove all the plasterboard and tile together. It makes the removal quick and plasterboard is cheap to replace, plus you don't skim boards before tiling for this saves time and money too. Worth considering at least. If you have plastered outside walls i.e. not plasterboard consider overtiling these walls.

Regards Brian

[Midge]

I personally use an old wallpaper scraper which I belt under the tile edges with a mallet. The blade is flexible and thin enough to drive right under the tile and break through the adhesive without doing much damage (esp. with plasterboard where some of the surface coating of the board will tend to come off with it).

In most cases the tile will come off with just the scraper hammered under, but if not, I leave it in place to protect the plaster and drive in a cold chisel between the scraper and tile.

The resulting surface doesn't look pretty, but is usually free from any significant damage. I take a scraper to any high spots (e.g. where adhesive is still stuck) and then slap on a coat of tiling primer (e.g. BAL Prime-APD) to stabilise the surface for re-tiling.

As with anything like this though, use eye protection and suitable clothing/footwear as pieces of tile can be as sharp as glass.

If you're doing a large area on plasterboard, the previous suggestion of replacing the board is valid too as removing a lot of them does take time.

HTH.

[jon]

Thanks to all who replied with advice.The walls are plaster on to breeze block and chunks of the adhesive and plaster did come off with some of the tiles so I have deciced to call in the experts to repair and tile the walls.