Best way of removing ceramic tiles?

devilot

Wonder if anyone can give me any tips, our new house has floor to ceiling tiled walls in the bathroom and kitchen, we are tackling the bathroom as number one job because the suite in there looks like it came with the house (1968!!)

We defnitely need to remove the tiles as opposed to tiling over them as the tiles are already level with the door frames etc as it is (hoping against hope there's not another layer of tiles already underneath!:eek:), when we have got the tiles removed we will only be partially retiling, however I know that because of leftover adhesive and/or the mess the tiles will leave, we'll probably need to get someone to at least re-skim the walls.

I've budgetted around £1000 in total for the bathroom, out of that, the suite has cost £359, the new shower £70, I was quoted by a local tradesman that retiling is £16psqm and to remove the tiles would be at least a half to a days job so around £80, not to mention around £195 to actually have the suite fitted, that's before we've even looked at buying tiles, wallpaper, paints etc ...so we need to cut costs as much as possible, therefore removing tiles ourselves - have looked online and found the 'old hammer and chisel' method recommended and also someone who said heating the tiles with a blowtorch before taking it off makes it much easier?

Any advice would be appreciated.

ecosse306

I have just removed all the tiles from my bathroom, and to be honest, the easiest way is to take the plasterboard down too - you will probably find that trying to get the tiles away from the plasterboard will damage it anyway.

At least that way, its much quicker and you will have a nice new wall to put the new tiles up on!

devilot

ecosse306 wrote: »

I have just removed all the tiles from my bathroom, and to be honest, the easiest way is to take the plasterboard down too - you will probably find that trying to get the tiles away from the plasterboard will damage it anyway.

At least that way, its much quicker and you will have a nice new wall to put the new tiles up on!

Thanks...ummm how do we do that?:o

ecosse306

The hammer and chisel method if you have a bit of wall that you can get the chisel into to start it. Try putting the chisel in between the tile and the plasterboard to start with to see how easy the tiles will come away - it depends on how well they were put up in the first place.

I found in my house (1940s) that the plasterboard came away from the wall at the same time, so it was a case of gently pulling it away - I managed to remove a whole wall in one go! Please wear gloves when taking tiles off - they can be very very sharp! I used gardening gloves which seemed to be thick enough to stop bits of tile stabbing me!!!

I was in the same boat as you and needed to keep costs down, so I got a company into change the suite over but I did a lot of the prep work before hand, so basically it worked like this:

1. I removed all the tiles and plasterboard as far as I could round the suite
2. Plumber came in and disconnected and removed the suite
3. Once the suite was out, I fitted new plasterboard (just screwed the sheet to the wall)
4. Plumber fitted new suite and sealed bath etc
5. I re-tiled the bathroom - its actually much easier than people think - as long as you get a level line for the first row, use tile spacers to put up the rest

ecosse306

Sorry, forgot to say that the plumber charged me £500 to remove the old suite, move waste and water pipes and fit new suite and seal etc. This included moving pipes and wires for the electric shower and fitting the new shower unit.

I supplied the bathroom suite - it was about £270 in B&Q.