Removing Floor Tiles

[Thomarse]

Hi,

My kitchen needs a bit of a renovation, and Ideally I'd like to take up the current floor tiles and replace with something a little more stylish.

However, having experienced taking up floor tiles in my very small porch, and the effort and mess it involved, I am wondering if there is an "easier" way to remove floor tiles and get all the tile cement up.

In my porch I used a hammer and chisel but it took forever as the tiles were so hard, even when I got under them, the cement stayed firmly on the ground and I had to slowly chip this away.

Surely there must be an easier way!!!!

The tiles are ceramic, and half of them are layed on the wooden floor (I assume on sheets of ply) - so these shoudl be easyish to remove. However the rest are layed on concrete floor, and so its this part that I need advice for!

Tom

[lister]

You can get a hand tile remover tool which is basically a big flat blade on the end of a long handle (broom handle length).

Alternatively there are tile removing machines that you can hire. Dunno how much but probably cheap enough to be worth it if there are a lot to remove.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am afraid that there is no easy way. That I know of.

A hired kanga type machine chisel helps a lot tho.

[Stuart Noble]

It depends on the adhesive they were laid with. Modern floor tile adhesive is nothing like as difficult as cement, which was used in a lot of older houses. Even wall tiles in 30s houses are impossible to get off

[dmoodie]

It is the perfect job for an SDS drill with appropriate chisel bit.

There are plenty of previous posts on the benefits of SDS drills and recommendations as to which one to buy.

I removed the quarry tiles from our porch using it and it in comparison to using a hammer and chisel it is an enjoyable job, also made short work of the bathroom wall tiles.

I did also shell out for one of the specific tile removal bits as in

?_dyncharset=UTF-8&fh_search=sds+tile&x=0&y=0#although I believe it wasn't as dear as this at the time. It is not essential but can help minimise any damage to the floor.

cheers

David