How to Remove Ceramic Tiles

Reusing Removed Ceramic Tile

Before starting a removing ceramic tile job, decide whether you have anything there worth salvaging. It could be that while you want to redecorate the shower stall, that ceramic tile would look great on the wall in the laundry room. And it can be used over again, as long as you are careful in removing the ceramic tile. Ceramic tile has lots of compression strength, but very little tensile strength. That means you can put weight on it, but to twist or bend the piece, will likely break it.

 

Removing Ceramic Tile First, you'll need to remove any trim that covers the edges of the ceramic tiles. Next, remove all the grout you can between the ceramic tiles. They're glued to your wall or floor, so nothing is going to fall off when you do this. But the grout must be removed, because in attaching them all together, it's like creating one giant sheet of ceramic, and it will be just as brittle as a single tile. So forcing one tile, can end up breaking a number of them.

Once the grout is cleaned away, take a very thin putty knife and start by working a corner under the edge of one ceramic tile. Work along the top, gradually inserting more of the blade as you go. You can use a hammer to gently tap the handle of the knife to help insert it. When the blade is about halfway down the back of the tile, you can exert slow, upward pressure, which should pop the ceramic tile off.

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Clean Removed Ceramic Tile before Reusing

If you plan to re-use the ceramic tile, the backs will need to be cleaned, either with an adhesive remover, or by grinding, if they were applied with thinset.

See HomeAdditionPlus.com's Ceramic Tile Calculator for your Ceramic Tile Project

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