How To Take Up Bathroom Tile Floor

There s no easy way on how to remove tile.

How to take up bathroom tile floor.

Remove ceramic tile from plywood. If the tiles you re removing were set in mastic and not mortar you re lucky a floor scraper will do the job. If it s a mortar bed. Break up the first tile with the blunt edge of a hammer image 1 and then use a chisel to pry up the remainder of the first tile.

How to remove tile. Unlike tile on cement board or wood there s no underlayment or subfloor that can be pried up and thrown away. If the tile is stuck to plywood the strategy is a little different. Tile demolition is such a messy endeavor and adds so much time to a bathroom remodel that you may be looking for a way to avoid it.

Put on protective gear to shield yourself from flying debris then use a cold chisel and a sledgehammer to break apart the first tile. I used a combination of a sledgehammer a hammer drill and a shovel to pry it up. Once this first tile is removed place the chisel against the bottom edge of adjacent tiles apply pressure with your hammer and the tiles should pop up easily image 2. This bathroom happened to have an old pink tile floor with a thick mortar bed under it so removing it was a bit of a challenge.

Removing floor tile can be a difficult and time consuming project and the challenges often remain hidden until the project is underway. After you have chipped away at the tile and mortar cut the old subfloor into small sections with a circular saw equipped with a carbide blade. Chisel down through the bed to the tar paper. How to remove tile from concrete requires knocking out the tiles and adhesive.

It should come up fairly easily. Pry up the sections with a pry bar. Then use a big flatbar or similar demolition tool to pry up chunks of mortar and tile. To get started first i had to remove the existing floor and prepare it for the new tile floor.

If the old tile was laid on underlayment cut through the underlayment and mortar but not the subfloor. Depending on the construction the tile may be attached to bare cement a plywood or mason board underlayment or even affixed to a previously installed floor. Even a small bathroom will take half a day at a minimum. Remove ceramic tile from a bed of mortar.

Hit the tile in the center with a hammer. Break up the first tile with a hammer. However if they were set in mortar follow these steps for proper tile flooring removal.