do you save much money in taking off all your own tiles?

tudorfan22

i am considering getting a tiler to retile my bathroom, i wanted to know if in general would i save much money in ripping off the old tiles myself or would i be better in gettinger the professionals to do it?

wallbash

AS an amateur I never give advice about money.
But if you do decide to take off the tiles . please be careful. ( hope I am not teaching granny to suck eggs) Tile fragments are sharp!!!!

Doozergirl

They will charge you for removal - what % of that quote I don't know but it isn't hard if you do it with a crow bar and doesn't take long. I do it, not problem.

27col

I second wallbash. It is a good idea to wear goggles as well. I have never come across a professional tile remover, so have a go yourself. Using a flexible filling knife is a good idea, it will make it easy to get behind the tiles and pop them off. If the plaster comes off as well, do not worry, the plaster would have come off no matter who was removing the tiles. It would not be because you were doing something wrong necessarily. Usually, once the tiles have started to come off, they will come with very little effort on your part. Sometimes they stick like s*** to a blanket, but that is fairly rare.

Kiran

As Doozergirl says, its an easy job so you should save money. The amount you will save will depend on if you are employing them on a price or a day rate. Its quite satisfying too

my_definition

i removed my kitchen tiles a few months ago - it was only a wall as the previous owners had french doors leading into the kitchen (why??) i cant remeber how much it was but im sure it saved us atleast £100 and that was just 1 wall - would def think its worth it but it does make a mess so be careful

tudorfan22

fantastic, thanks guys!

andrew-b

You'll save money no question. I would never even consider paying someone to remove them. Bear in mind though it isn't always as straightforward... I removed tiles from our kitchen - going about 1/2 way up the wall all the way round (including behind units) to find a brown cardboard type of backing on the wall. Only way to get it off was scrape millimetre at a time and it literally took me a week!

As already said safety goggles are a must - OH's sister once got hospitalized after tile fragments flew off my chisel into her eye. Also get yourself some big flexible buckets to throw all the broken tiles into as you peel off ..makes it so much easier to dispose of as you can just carry it straight to the car to take to the tip. We've used rubble bags in the past and they are absolutely useless (if you ever buy bags of sand and other aggregate keep the bag - far better than any rubble bag i've ever wasted money on!)

Andy