How To Remove Tile?
QUICK ANSWER
Remove floor tile by breaking out one tile near a corner with a hammer and cold chisel, then working a long-handled chisel or floor scraper under the remaining tiles to pry them up. Wear safety glasses, gloves, and a dust mask. Removing the thinset underneath is the hardest part.
Removing floor tile is mostly heavy, dusty work. The actual technique is simple: break one tile to create an opening, then work across the floor levering tiles up from that edge. The challenge is the leftover thinset mortar bonded to the subfloor, which often takes longer to remove than the tile itself. Here is the right approach and what tools make it go faster.
What tools do you need to remove tile?
Basic tools: a 3-pound sledgehammer or framing hammer, a cold chisel (also called a brick chisel or mason chisel), a long-handled floor scraper or chipping bar, safety glasses, work gloves, knee pads, and a dust mask or respirator. For larger floors, rent an electric chipping hammer (Bosch and Makita make small ones at any tool rental). A wet shop vac helps with cleanup since tile removal generates serious dust. For removing thinset underneath, a hammer drill with a chisel bit makes the job much faster.
How do you remove tile from a concrete floor?
Start by chipping out one tile near a corner or edge with the hammer and chisel. Once you have one tile out, work the chisel or floor scraper into the gap and pry up adjacent tiles. Tile usually breaks during removal, which is fine since you are discarding it anyway. Work your way across the floor. The tile comes off relatively easily; the thinset mortar bonded to the concrete is what takes time. Plan to spend as much time scraping thinset as you did removing tile.
How do you remove tile from a wood subfloor?
Tile over plywood or OSB subfloor is much easier to remove than tile over concrete because you can often pry up entire sections including the cement backer board underneath. Use a long pry bar or floor scraper to work under the backer board edge and lift everything up at once. Cut backer board into sections with a circular saw (carbide blade, dust mask, outdoor or with shop vac) for easier handling. Removing the backer board and tile together is often faster than removing tile alone.
What about the leftover thinset or adhesive?
Thinset mortar bonded to concrete is the worst part of a tile removal job. Use a hammer drill with a chisel bit (rotary hammer mode) to chip off the bulk of it, then go over the floor with a long-handled floor scraper to remove the remaining thin layer. The goal is a surface flat enough for the next flooring layer, not perfectly smooth. For tile that was on a wood subfloor, the easiest approach is often to remove the entire backer board layer rather than scrape the surface clean.
Removing floor tile is straightforward but physically demanding. Start with one tile, work from that opening across the floor, save half your effort for removing the thinset underneath. Rent a chipping hammer for any floor larger than a small bathroom. Wear protection (eyes, lungs, hands, knees) throughout. On wood subfloors, removing the entire backer board layer is often faster than scraping mortar clean.
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