On this step of removing the ceramic tile it’s going to get messy so what Used to do first was remove anything that I could so i wouldn’t have to clean it when i was done. Even though I was not going to recycle the tile, I desired to be careful because I desired to put the tile on Freecycle or Craigslist so someone else could possibly use them. The only tools I used were an old flat tip prop driver, hammer and a box cutter machine.
I will say that the tiles that are offset from the wall about 1/2″ with a mortar mix. The way that the mortar stays on the wall is a cord nylon uppers that is attached to the wall with staples and nails. I started by cutting the bead of caulk around the top edge tile manufacture of the tile being careful not to cut to deep and into the drywall. Now the first tile off is the most crucial so you need to be real careful. I recently started the screwdriver back behind the tile and pried a little bit at a time at tile I could remove without damaging the wall or the tiles next to it. From the period it gets easier. I worked a line lower to the floor and then made my way around the room.
Being how you are still using the bathroom I had to work around a few things. The first was the bathroom. The container of the bathroom was real towards the tile so it made it difficult to get the tiles off around it. The next thing was the self-importance. I will tell you anytime they built this house they custom built the self-importance and everything before they put up the tile so there is allot of things to cut around. I must say anytime I got to the mirror I must be real careful because the mirror was resting on top of the tile. Now I am the kind of guy that if something can go wrong it most likely will. I got lucky on this part and didn’t break the mirror.
Another nice thing about doing all the work myself, I get to observe how thing’s are built. I am a project electrical engineer for a manufacturing company and I am always looking at how things are built. Okay I better return to the tile work. Now I mentioned that the tile was about 1/2″ unusual with a mortar mix. When i got to the entranceway way there was the mortar mix on one side and on the other they built it up with a piece of plywood and used liquid nails to hold the tiles up. Needless to say, I couldn’t save any of the tiles that were glued to the wood. Then i found an area that the tile was glued directly to the drywall. I have to replace some drywall now. Luckily that was the end of removing the tile.
I stacked all of the good tile in a box and used out all bad ones. Swept up all the debris and put everything back in its place. As i mentioned at the beginning My goal is to list the tiles on Freecycle since they are in good condition and hopefully someone else can use them instead of them doing the land fill. As i remodel I’m always searching for ways that we can delete materials instead of throwing them into a land fill that is already crammed.