I removed a few tiles from my bathtub shower enclosure to make a small repair. Is there any easy way I can remove the thinset on the back of the tiles so I can reuse them? They were installed when the house was built 27 years ago.
If you find an easy way, let me know.
Someone spent a lot of money back when attempting to stick those tile in a manner that would not come undone. To save a few tile to reinstall, carefully grind the thinset off the back. I would suggest a concrete rubbing stone hand toot), if you break the tile it cannot be matched unless you have some spares. ______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net
"Ultraglide" wrote in news:7b6Yg.114840$ snipped-for-privacy@read2.cgocable.net:
Scrape, chip, grind and pray.
Experiment with muriatic acid.
Ultraglide wrote:
Soak them in water for a day, then give each family member a paint scraper and scrape away. It comes off, just be careful to scrape and not chip. High spots will come off with sandpaper.
I have done this by letting the tile soak in water, with just a few drops of dish washing liquid added to assist penetration and then wire brushing it off.
Lewis.
*****
I have also heard of using some liquid dish soap in the soaking water. However, it still needed a little more than a wire brushing to get most of the thinset off ie. still needed a good stiff putty knifing.
BTW, all the thinset does not really have to be off. All one has to do is remove enough so as to provide enough space for a thin layer of thinset or mastic for remounting without making the tile sit too high off the wall/floor.
My experience with this was where I had to use "Used" tile to repair a spot in a customer's bath. Had to replace 6 cracked tile with 6 used tile robbed from under her vanity because that tile was not offered any more. I scraped/chiseled/persuaded/cursed enough of the old thinset off the backs of the tile and ALL the thinset scraped/chiseled/persuaded/cursed off the mounting surface so the tile would not set higher than the existing tile field around the replacement when new thinset was applied. So, I really only removed about half the height of the thinset on the back of the used tile and applied a thin enough layer of thinset so the tile laid level with the surrounding field.
Regards, Ed
I bought a $8 Harbor Freight angle grinder with a masonary wheel on it. it made short work of knocking down the high points after the soaking with water
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