Getting up old tile

hscrugby

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Raleigh, NC
OK, somehow my mother in law moving into a place, means I have a to do list.
Not sure how the hell that works.
But obviously, it did.
Soo
What's the best way to get up tile and all the related crap from it? Is there an easy way? Just take a big chisel and go to town?
Any tips/tricks to it?
(and no, paying someone is not an option. I've learned that)
paying for movers, became, well you don't have to, but you can pay for painters, and just move the stuff ourselves. It isn't much.
:(
Then the painters turned into, you can just buy the paint, and help me paint. And buy trim, and flooring. It's still cheaper.
Felch. I don't like working on my own house, much less someone elses.

Oh well. Fortunately, my wife doesn't read this forum :D

So any tips/tricks/recommended tools would be appreciated.

thanks.
 
A good strong scraper on a long handle so you do not have to bend down as far..
A pry bar and a hammer to wedge the bar under and pop them up...
Or, if the option is available, an air/electric chisel with a wide flat blade.

Hitting the tile with a mini sledge hammer first will break it up but also very easily causes flying chips. We did one house and a guy was using a 10lb sledge. When he hit one spot, a piece about the size of a dollar bill flew up and stuck into his leg very very close to the artery. There was a :poop:load of blood almost instantly.

What will be going down in place of the tile? How old is the house? We have come across older houses which have a 3 to 4 inch thick slab under them and that is NOT fun to take out, rebuild and then lay wood over...
 
Wear safety glasses! chisel and scraper. Tiles come up kinda easy, the thinset left behind will take a little elbow grease. You could get fancy and rent a power scraper, to remove thinset.
 
Safety glasses are a given.
I'm a retarded accident prone monkey when it comes to working on things.
If possible I tend to find a way to hurt myself.
:D
When you say use an air chisel, do you mean just a normal air hammer, with the chisel in it?
Do they make really wide ones for an air hammer?
I've got the normal ones like this:
awww.northerntool.com_images_product_images_154400_lg.gif

and I could take my compressor over there if it would make me less annoyed with this.
screw her neighbors. :lol:

So I've gotten don't bash the tiles with a big sledge, or if I do wear shin guards. Wear glasses, and prepare to be annoyed.

Anything else? Short of not having a mother in law live right around the corner from you. :(


OH yea, it's on the first floor, so it's a concrete slab underneath the tile. Not sure if that changes anything.
As for the actual flooring going on top, she's taking care of that. She works for a local carpet/flooring shop. (why she isn't having them do the whole thing is beyond me. But see previous comments to get an idea.)
Would finding something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Flooring-Remover-Stripper-Stripper/dp/B000PAQEHS
31dte13AKnL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

be worth it? Or just suck it up, sit on my ass and slowly chisel along?
 
instead of a sledgehammer, just take a running start (or from the stairs) jump and do a cannonball on top of the tile and just see what happens. oh yea, and set up a video camera first so we can have something to laugh at on youtube
 
place a large wet towl over the tile and then hit it with slegde hammer, this will keep the tile from flying all over the place and keep the dust down as well. Then clean up the rest with a chisel.
 
On a concrete floor...this will make it a bit easier, since you wont have ''backerboard'' to deal with. Getting the first tile up is the hardest part. After that you can get under the rest of them alot easier. After the tiles are up, the Home Depot power scraper will be efficient in a larger space and well worth the rental fee.Bathrooms and smaller kitchens are too small to bother with this machine.

P.s. the machine is loud and annoying...this may be fun for the neighbors you spoke of.

x2 on the wet towel
 
hscrugby said:
Safety glasses are a given.
I'm a retarded accident prone monkey when it comes to working on things.
If possible I tend to find a way to hurt myself.
:D
When you say use an air chisel, do you mean just a normal air hammer, with the chisel in it?
Do they make really wide ones for an air hammer?
I've got the normal ones like this:
awww.northerntool.com_images_product_images_154400_lg.gif

and I could take my compressor over there if it would make me less annoyed with this.
screw her neighbors. :lol:

So I've gotten don't bash the tiles with a big sledge, or if I do wear shin guards. Wear glasses, and prepare to be annoyed.

Anything else? Short of not having a mother in law live right around the corner from you. :(


OH yea, it's on the first floor, so it's a concrete slab underneath the tile. Not sure if that changes anything.
As for the actual flooring going on top, she's taking care of that. She works for a local carpet/flooring shop. (why she isn't having them do the whole thing is beyond me. But see previous comments to get an idea.)
Would finding something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Flooring-Remover-Stripper-Stripper/dp/B000PAQEHS
31dte13AKnL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

be worth it? Or just suck it up, sit on my ass and slowly chisel along?
Click to expand...

The second from the left would work. It would take a little longer than say a 4inch wide one... which means the compressor has to run longer to annoy the neighbors longer. :D

The scaper you linked to is exactly what I was reffering to.
 
hscrugby said:
Or is it worth it to rent one of these from home depot:
(If for no other reason than it looks like a LOT more fun.)

anews.thomasnet.com_images_medium_019_19610.jpg
Click to expand...

I did not know Home Depot rented out guys to do the work for you?

But the machine is good for big areas.
 
360 Spyder said:
I did not know Home Depot rented out guys to do the work for you?
But the machine is good for big areas.
Click to expand...
yea, they stand out in front of home depot typically.
Have a good tan and like burrito's.
:D
You just don't want to have an INS dude show up to the jobsite. :lol:
 
long hand scraper for the easy stuff and the real hard stuff i usually take a heat gun to it to heat the glue up and it comes right up..
 
There should'nt be any glue, just tile(ceramic) and the thinset. You would be there for a while, if you tried to ''burn up thinset''!
 
LarrySmith89 said:
the real hard stuff i usually take a heat gun to it to heat the glue up and it comes right up..
Click to expand...
WHAT THA FAAAAHHH
Heat gun helps melt thinset?
Really?
Wow...I dont see how...

Anyway yeah Id use the long handle deal they sell at Lowe's for like $20...
 
ooops thats what happems when I start a reply and walk away. thanks dylan
 
LarrySmith89 said:
long hand scraper for the easy stuff and the real hard stuff i usually take a heat gun to it to heat the glue up and it comes right up..
Click to expand...



Either your use to working in a house built by crackheads or...


The short bus will be by later to pick you up
 
Dylan W. said:
You were probably just t y p i n g t o o s l o w:flipoff2:
Click to expand...
Them damn keys are hard to find....


Why could theey not just be in ALPHABETICAL ORDER???
:flipoff2:
 
well the old tile i got up had glue on it dont know if it was supposed to but it did.
 
OK.

New theory.
If it's got tile, and you don't like it.
Don't buy the place.
Simple.
I am NEVER doing that crap again. NO MATTER WHAT.
The floor scraper thing just didn't get it done. It kept dulling the blades, I was scared to use the grinder to often to sharpen the "tines" or whatever they are called. Since it's a condo, and with my luck I'd be the cause for another post about apartment fires in Raleigh.

I took a piece of tile to the finger, blood everywhere.
(didn't bother to put gloves back on, since i'm just using a machine, not touching the stuff. bleh)
then it wasn't working so me and a buddy found the "best" way to get it up.
8lb sledges, smashing crap as hard as you can.
Tiring.
And lethal.
I have a few drywall holes from projectile tiles to repair now.
oh, and large bruises on my legs.

And my poor buddy just came over to help me move a stove. Poor sucker didn't knwo what he was in for.
:D

fecking tile.

Cheers
 
purpleTJchick said:
Heat does wonders... try heating up the tile before you take it off, or just on the thinset
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I don't see how this could make a diference? Thinset/mortar = sand based compound = good heat transmitter. The bond is physical, not chemical, right? Is this wrong?
 
The only thing I can come up with, is that maybe the heat crowd is referring to linoleum tile? I could see heat being helpful with that goop glue shit. But its thin enough to rock right on over...
 
RatLabGuy said:
I'm sorry, but I don't see how this could make a difference? Thinset/mortar = sand based compound = good heat transmitter. The bond is physical, not chemical, right? Is this wrong?
Click to expand...

I am thinking of a different type.... my bad.

The floor tile we took up broke in half or more before you could pull up one piece, when you heated the tile and then tried to remove it, the tile was a tad bit more flexible and stayed together., that made it easy to KEEP the scraper under the tile and continue pry/scraping.. Nothing was more aggravating then getting up tile 1/4 inch of the tile at a time. OR Trying to force the tile up, only for it to break, and the momentum from your force sends to falling to the ground and hitting your head.

I was getting floor tile up like you would see in a commercial building, Which took adhesive, and so that is what made it easier on me
 
This was ceramic tile.
To heat it up enough to make it flexible,
well. We'd have made the headlines for torching the building that's for sure.
The only thing heat might have done, if there were air pockets trapped somewhere, I could see it popping those bubbles, so then the shards of flying shrapnel would burn me as it's embedding itself in my legs/hands/face etc.
 
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