How to remove tile in the bathroom from the wall

When carrying out major repairs in the kitchen or in the bathroom, the question inevitably arises of removing old tiles. It may not correspond to the future design of the room, may have various defects that have appeared during the operation, block access to replaced communications. How to remove tiles from the wall with minimal effort and financial cost?

First of all, you should decide on the desired result:

1. The easiest option is to simply free the walls from the old cladding without worrying about its safety. Problems here can arise only if the basis is drywall.
2. The task is complicated if it is desirable to keep part of the tile to be removed so that later this tile can be used to repair another room, for example, in a country house.
3. If you want to remove only one or several tiles, for example, to replace the communications below them, then this is already jewelry work. In order to carefully remove one tile fragment, without damaging the neighboring ones, you will have to be very careful.

Quick delete

If you can not spare the old bathroom lining, then you can remove tiles from the walls in a variety of ways. The easiest way to use a punch. At the same time, one should not forget about safety measures, you need to work with gloves and glasses.

Tip. Tiles in the bathroom or in the kitchen are best removed from top to bottom: this will help to avoid unpleasant moments in the event that poorly glued tiles begin to fall off in whole blocks.

Is it possible to remove the tile glued to drywall?

How to remove tiles from drywall? If it fit correctly and in compliance with all the rules, then it is almost impossible to remove it without damaging the drywall base. The chances of success increase if:

• Less than a day has passed since the laying of the facing material, and the tile adhesive has not yet dried to the end.
• Drywall before laying the tiles was plastered.

In the first case, the tile can be easily removed with a spatula, gently prying it in such a way as not to damage the sheet.

If gypsum plasterboard was plastered, then you can remove the facing material without damage in the same way as with a regular wall.

In all other cases, the drywall base is likely to be damaged. You have to change the whole sheet. However, if only a few tiles were removed, you can cut out a defective piece of drywall sheet and replace it with a new one. The defective piece is cut with a hacksaw, bars or a profile are made in the hole formed. The length of the profile must exceed the size of the patch, which will allow it to be attached to the old base. A chamfer is made on the inserted piece, and it is attached with screws to this frame.

Dismantling tiles from the whole wall

How to carefully remove the tiles? The process is simple, but you have to be prepared for the fact that remove all the tiles without damaging it, is unlikely to succeed. If the old tile was put on glue, then the losses will be small, but if the cement mortar - you need to prepare for a fairly large percentage of losses.

• At the preliminary stage, it is necessary to remove the grout from the seams. It is moistened with a sponge or foam, soaked in water. Then the grout is carefully removed with a spatula.

The task is facilitated if, by the time of dismantling, there are already fallen tiles. This not only speaks of the unstable fixing of the tile, but also determines the place of the beginning of dismantling.

• If the integrity of the finish is not broken, you should start from above by removing or breaking one tile. The next tile is separated by driving a thin chisel with a hammer between it and the glue. Shots must be strong, but accurate.

Important! Carefully monitor the behavior of the tile to prevent it from falling at the right time. Otherwise, the tile, safely separated from the wall safe and sound, may break.

If you can’t remove the fragment on one side, then you need to try to pry it on the other. But if the lining was attached to cement or, as in the bathroom, was constantly in a humid environment, then it will not be possible to remove a significant part of the tile intact. However, most often during the repair, the owners are not worried about the safety of the old tiles, and they resort to using a punch.

Even with the careful dismantling of the tile, it is imperative to use safety glasses and gloves: if you hit with a chisel, a small part of the tile may break off and damage your hands or eyes. It is better to play it safe and avoid such injuries.

Dismantling multiple tiles

There are times when you need to remove only one or more tiles in the bathroom. This can be done without damaging adjacent elements, only if no more than a week has passed since the tile was laid. With a longer term, chips cannot be avoided.

How to remove a tile from a wall in a single copy? The seams are cleaned with a screwdriver or a special knife, and after the fragment is gently poked with a chisel or thin chisel.

To avoid chipping on a tile located next to the element to be removed, the surface of the tool that will come in contact with adjacent tiles can be wrapped with electrical tape.

As you can see, the process is quite risky. Therefore, it does not hurt to have a spare tile fragment if the old one cannot be removed without damage.

Glue removal

The tile removed from the wall must be cleaned of glue before reuse. Several tiles can be cleaned using a chisel and a hammer.

Tip: before processing, it is recommended to place fragments of the cladding in water for several hours. So the glue will be removed much easier.

With large volumes, a grinder equipped with a special nozzle will come to the rescue. This treatment is accompanied by a significant amount of dust, so it is better to carry out it in the fresh air.

Glue or mortar can be removed from the wall:

• Puncher.
• Grinder, not forgetting that she gives a lot of dust.
• Scraper

In any case, it is preliminarily recommended to moisten the wall with plenty of water.

Glue can not be removed if it is applied under the comb with a thin layer. The wall is primed, and the roughness of the adhesive smoothes a thin layer of mortar. The main thing is to make sure that the old glue holds firmly. Otherwise, the risk of the fragility of the new cladding is great.

To remove old tiles from the walls of the bathroom or kitchen is not so difficult if you do everything correctly and accurately.