removing tile mastic from plaster walls

[Jane]

Remodeling the kitchen (due to an addition and a door and window elimination) and now have more cabinet and countertop area. I built the new cabinets and refaced the old. Now I need to remove the ceramic tile from the walls (countertop to bottom of cabinets). The walls are plaster and I like the tile but cannot match the color for newly created areas as the house was built in the 50's. I like the look of tile between the countertop and cabinets.

I have have read about tiling over existing tile. Has anyone one done that? Results?

If I end up having to remove the old tile, does anyone know how to take the tile adhesive off the plaster wall? Heat gun and scrape?

Has anyone done this? Maybe remove the old mastic and add 1/4 inch backerboard to even out the gouges I'll probably get from removing the mastic?

I've been to tile stores but the sales people only know how to sell tile and have been of no help.

Thanks, Jane

[Dave]

Heat gun should work. Good Luck!

-David

[Doug Miller]

But make sure to have adequate ventilation. The fumes from that stuff are obnoxious.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[ceraboy]

The heat gun is worth a try, but I had a house built in 1966 that I tried to remove the tiles and cement from both the bathroom and kitchen to no avail. I tried every concievable option, and in the end the damage the drywall was just too great in all cases. It was just easier to cut out the old drywall and refit fresh drywall in. This may sound a bit daunting at first, but I can guarentee in the end it will be easier than taking the tiles off unless of course we are only talking about a handful of tiles.

[Norminn]

clipped

Not exactly - we have 35 y/o metal tile on backsplash over cooktop in our kitchen, which apparently was installed to last forever :o) Paint was fading, and repaint and ripping out tile not attractive ideas. We considered ceramic tile over it, but I don't like greasy grout. We used contact cement, same as contractor used on other areas, and covered it with neutral color laminate (same type as counter tops), then installed textured glass over that, held in place and sealed up tight with clear silicone caulk. We had the glass cut, edges ground, then tempered. Looks great, cleaning is a snap, and cost about $80 total for that area of wall. We were "lucky" to get seconds of laminate at HD. When we first thought of using glass, I considered just a colored glass - or painting the back side - hung like mirror. When we visited the glass shop, hubby liked a particular pattern. Since it came only 6' wide with up/down pattern, we have a seam. Did the seam with clear sil., after making sure that both pieces were level and flush with each other. The seam is almost invisible because of the pattern. If we get tired of it, we can cut the caulk and haul it to the trash. It is about 7' wide, between counter backsplash to upper cabinet.

I've looked around quite a bit for ideas for using glass, and found zip. If I had my druthers, I would have used a laminate with more color and pattern, with perhaps just a wavy glass over it. The glass shop mentioned one other person who used a green glass which had been sandblasted - sounded gorgeous. Some clear glass with wire mesh is pretty cool for "tech" looking kitchen.

I can email a pic, if you like.

[John B]

Would you consider posting on an internet site? It's free. Try photobucket.com. Hopefully you camouflage your email address, as spammers troll for addresses in newsgroups. You can expect to receive an irresistable offer on a fortune in Nigeria. Some poor fellow needs your money, to get him out of trouble, and he will then let you share in the fortune that his father, a deposed man formerly of enormous influence, had hidden somewhere.

"Norminn" wrote