How to remove old tiles. How to remove old tiles from bathroom walls

Choose the right tool before removing tiles from a wall. Depending on the base, it can be a hammer drill, a conventional chisel, a spatula, or even a grinder.

Any apartment or country house periodically needs renovation. Sometimes it is enough to change accessories and furniture to make the atmosphere fresh and cheerful. But in most cases, you will have to work hard on a more thorough rework. If everything is clear with the replacement of wallpaper and painting the walls, then the question of how to remove the tiles from the wall can drive many into a dead end. Especially if this process must be carried out carefully, without damaging the tiles.

In fact, dismantling is not a big deal. The main thing is to stock up on the necessary tools and determine in what way the tiles were glued to the wall (using cement or glue mortar). It happens that the old tile needs to be removed not completely, but only some part of it. Then you should be especially careful not to damage not only the adjacent tiles, but also the wall itself in the kitchen.

What do we need?

It is almost impossible to completely clean the surface of the tiles and not damage a single fragment. But if you show accuracy and a little skill, it is quite possible to keep the tiles intact as much as possible. How successful the work will be depends primarily on the well-laid tiles and on the adhesive composition, as well as on the limitation period.

The work may require the use of the following tools and materials:

drills and hammer drills;
metal spatula;
hammer;
a scraper to remove grout;
knife;
chisels.

Don't forget about safety precautions. Dismantling old tiles is a dusty and dirty process, so you should stock up on work clothes, special goggles, a mask or gauze bandage, and gloves. To make it easier for yourself to clean after the work done, you can lay an oilcloth on the floor.

Dismantling process

If the tile has been installed to the kitchen wall using cement mortar, it is almost impossible to remove it intact. Therefore, here you need a hammer drill with a special attachment. If the tile was attached with glue, then there are more chances to dismantle it without damage. The easiest way is to remove the tile without preserving its integrity. In the process, you will need a perforator with a chisel attachment. Before starting, you need to put on work clothes, goggles and a mask, since the process will be quite dusty with many flying small fragments. The cement mortar left on the wall after removing the tiles can be removed with a hammer.

After removing the grout, you should start dismantling the old tile. Here you need a perforator and a flat-shaped nozzle, which starts behind the tiles to clean out the old mortar. If during the installation process glue was used, and not on cement mortar, then successful removal without deformation is possible. Otherwise, the tiles are more likely to crack.

Instead of a hammer drill, you can use a chisel with a hammer. After removing the grout, it is necessary to start a chisel under the tile and gently, without sudden movements, beat it off the wall with a hammer.

Removing multiple items

It is not always necessary to completely remove tiles from the walls of the kitchen. It is often enough to replace two or three tiles on which chips or other defects have appeared. Here you need to be extremely careful with the tiles that should remain. The process of dismantling tiles from the central part of the wall or in the corner is considered especially laborious. First of all, it is necessary to soften the grout with water and remove it as in the previous cases. A puncher in this case should not be used. Dismantling takes place with a hammer and chisel.

Cement slurry can make the task much more difficult. Therefore, the tiles must be removed carefully and in parts. First, you need to use a drill to make several holes in the tile, and then remove it piece by piece with a spatula.

How to remove tiles from drywall?

If the wall in the kitchen is made of plasterboard, then it is almost impossible to remove the tiles carefully, without damaging either it or the surface of the wall. The glue solution adheres very firmly to the drywall, eating into the surface. You can remove one or more tiles with the subsequent replacement of a piece of drywall. But with a whole wall, everything is much more complicated. You should hope for luck, and carefully proceed with the dismantling process. The chisel must be wound between the tile and the glue and tapped on it with a hammer. The tile either flies off by itself, or together with a piece of drywall. Alternatively, you can try to cut the ceramics with a grinder.

At the end of the work, it is necessary to assess the damage to the walls and decide what to do with them next. It may be necessary to replace individual sections of the plasterboard structure.

Removing old tiles from a wall is not as difficult as it might seem. As with any renovation business, it requires careful preparation and deliberate action. If you stock up on the necessary tools and materials, study the tips and choose the most acceptable method for dismantling for yourself, then you can cope with the task without resorting to the help of specialists.

What do we need?

The work may require the use of the following tools and materials:

drills and hammer drills;
metal spatula;
hammer;
a scraper to remove grout;
knife;
chisels.

Dismantling process

A neat way requires a lot of effort and skill. Here you need to use a sharpened knife and trowel to remove grout from the joints. To make it softer and more pliable, you can moisten the surface with water using a sponge.

Removing multiple items

How to remove tiles from drywall?

At the end of the work, it is necessary to assess the damage to the walls and decide what to do with them next. It may be necessary to replace individual sections of the plasterboard structure.

When starting to renovate a bathroom or kitchen, we are often faced with the need to dismantle the dilapidated finishing coating.

The tile is distinguished by its durability and strength, as a result, even ten years after gluing, problems may arise with its removal.

The question arises of how to remove the tiles from the wall with minimal effort, cost and without damaging the base. There are several options for implementing this task:

when the dilapidated tile is of no value and you need to dismantle it all and quickly;
when the old tile must be preserved as much as possible;
when it is necessary to carefully remove one or two fragments and replace.

The first option is the least problematic and does not require a special description. A perforator is taken, a pen nozzle is installed and the entire layer of finish is chipped off in shock mode.

At the same time, you can quite simply beat off the glue with which the ceramics were attached to the base. Problems will only arise if the base of the wall is unstable and fragile. For example, if the tile is glued to the gypsum board.

Drywall is significantly inferior in strength to tile glue, so most likely, during dismantling, the sheets will be seriously damaged and they will also have to be dismantled in order to mount new ones.

If you do not have a hammer drill, you will have to work by hand - with a hammer and a chisel. It takes longer, but more accurate.

Tile preservation

Sometimes the tiles in the bathroom outwardly look no longer attractive, outdated, but their condition is still quite decent to be used in the country or somewhere in the closet, where aesthetics are not so important.

In this case, you can try to remove the tiles carefully, keeping the maximum amount intact.

In this case, the power tool is not suitable, you need to work more delicately.

From the tools you will need a hammer, chisel, chisel or large flat screwdriver, metal spatula, knife, or perhaps a grinder with a diamond wheel.

To keep the maximum number of pharmaceuticals in the bathroom intact, they must be isolated from each other. To do this, the seams are first embroidered - the grout is removed. Sometimes it is soft and can be picked out without any problems with a knife or spatula. If it doesn't work, then you can try to wet it.

If this is a high-quality mixture on a cement or acrylic base, a knife and a spatula will not take it, and it will not work to soak it.

In this case, you will have to carefully embroider the seams with a grinder. A diamond wheel is ideal, it cuts into stone perfectly. But sometimes the seams in the bathroom are too thin for him, in which case you can try to work with a ceramic circle of small thickness.

After joining, you can proceed to the beating.

Each fragment is carefully hammered with a hammer and chisel, tapped from all sides.

If the glue is weak, then you can count on a large percentage of the whole tile.

If the master has tried his best, then it is unlikely that even half of the tiles will be preserved.

It is worth remembering that the procedure will take a long time, it will take a lot of effort, and the result is questionable. In some cases, it is cheaper and easier to buy the required volume of new cheap tiles than to fiddle with ceramic tiles in the bathroom.

Replacing one or two elements

It happens that during operation several fragments on the wall are damaged.

At the same time, the decoration in the bathroom is still relatively new and does not need a complete replacement, and the remnants of tiles of this shade are stored in the closet.

In this case, you can try to remove the damaged fragments and replace them with whole ones from the stock.

But for this it is necessary to delicately remove the damaged fragment, trying not to scratch the neighboring ones.

The procedure is realizable, but troublesome:

It is likely that the freshly laid piece will be different from the rest on the wall. It is even more likely that the color of the seam will differ.

Therefore, before proceeding with the replacement, you need to assess the scale of the damage and understand whether the replacement will help or will only exacerbate the problem.

Expenses

This work may well be entrusted to those who make a living like that and know better how to remove tiles from the wall.

If you want to remove all the old finish and at the same time the safety of the tile does not play any role, then you can use the services of low-skilled workers who, for a reasonable amount, will quickly complete the entire volume in a short time.

Dismantling in such a situation will cost 200-250 r / m2. If the safety of the material is required, then it is better not to assign such a task to handymen, but to find qualified tilers. It will be expensive, but the percentage of the whole tile will be maximum.

On an ongoing basis, such a service is rarely offered, so the price and timing will have to be negotiated individually.

It is better to replace one or two fragments on your own, because the master will take an impressive amount for the challenge - no one wants to go for one tile.

Many ordinary people are sure that they know exactly how to remove tiles from the wall without damaging it. This work seems pretty simple, but the first time you try to remove the old tiles from the walls in the kitchen or bathroom, it turns out that it is not so easy to do. It will not be possible to keep all the components of the coating intact, but, acting according to the rules, most of the elements can be saved from destruction. Dismantling the tiles from the walls is carried out after assessing the general condition of the coating. In addition, you need to find out with what composition the laying was performed. The level of complexity of the upcoming work depends on the quality of the adhesive.

Preparation

Before removing the tiles from the wall, you should carefully prepare the room itself. In some cases, it is quite difficult to dismantle ceramic tiles and you should be prepared for the fact that a certain part of the products will be damaged during the work. But it can be easier to remove such a covering from the bathroom wall than to remove the tiles without damaging them. Before proceeding with dismantling, you need:

cover not only the floors in the room with a film, but also the remaining plumbing;
temporarily glue sockets and switches;
isolate lighting fixtures.

These precautions will help protect the listed items from dust and heavy contamination that could cause damage. The next step is to provide high-quality and effective protection for the plumbing equipment left in the room.

Before removing the old tiles from the walls of the bathroom, it is better to free the room from household appliances and isolate all drains, protecting them from clogging.

It is best to cover the equipment with cardboard or soft mothers folded in several layers. This will help to avoid damage from fragments of broken tiles (this will be required). All lamps should be turned off and taken out long before the start of work, and the removal of tiles should be carried out under specially created lighting.

Now you can start preparing the tool, with the help of which the tiles will be dismantled from the wall. Depending on the quality and age of the mortar (and the tile itself), it is necessary to prepare:

puncher;
hammer and chisel;
metal spatula;
foam sponge;
container for warm water;
mini spray bottle;
grinder;
wallpaper knife.

Using a thin but sturdy metal trowel instead of a hammer drill, you can carefully remove old tiles from the wall.

Clarifying how to carefully remove the tiles from the wall, many owners of apartments in which renovation is underway decide to independently implement their plans.

Beginning of work

When deciding how to remove tiles from walls without damaging individual parts, many come to the conclusion that it is better to use a thinner tool rather than a coarse punch. It is imperative to process the tile joints before removing the old tiles without damaging them. To do this, you can use:

Warm water. After moistening a sponge in it, thoroughly soak all the joints between the tiles and wait until the grout is completely wet. After that, you can cut a strip in the grout with a trowel angle or a wallpaper knife, up to the wall. Thus, it is necessary to process all the seams on the surface of the walls.
Grinder with a special disc. With a thin disc at medium speed, the seams are carefully cut. After such actions, it is imperative to remove dust, which accumulates in large quantities not only on the surface of the surrounding objects, but also in the already cut seams themselves. It is better to do this with a dry brush or a vacuum cleaner, while aging in this case, do not wet the cracks between the tiles obtained artificially.

With a thin disc at medium speed, carefully cut through all existing seams.

After completing the preparation of the seams, proceed directly to dismantling. All manipulations are performed with the utmost care to reduce the number of damaged tiles.

Before removing the tile itself, you must remove the decorative border. To do this, you can use a chisel and a regular hammer. The curb is removed, starting with the parts adjacent to the slopes of windows or doors. Now you can remove the old tile, first of all, by removing the details of the top row:

Thoroughly moistened with a sponge or a stream of warm water from a spray bottle treat all the cracks around each individual part of the coating. After 20-30 minutes, repeat the procedure, wetting the seams with water until it ceases to be absorbed.
Depending on the thickness of the layer and the quality of the adhesive, a tool is chosen with which to remove one tile at a time. Products laid on a cement-sand mixture can only be dismantled with a hammer drill or chisel with a hammer. While working with a hammer drill, the risk of damaging the constituent elements is much higher. This is due to the rather strong vibration and the peculiarity of the movements performed by the instrument.
If the tile was glued to a special adhesive mixture, then you can remove it using a metal spatula 10 cm wide and a light hammer. When performing such work, it is important to achieve full blotting of the adhesive under the tiles.

Old tiles are easily detached from the wall if not only warm water was used during soaking, but also special solutions.

The very process of removing the old coating created from tile or ceramic elements is carried out with great care. In the event that it is necessary to save the tile for future use, then during dismantling it is better to try to make sure that the glue remains on the wall surface.

How to remove tiles

If a bathroom or kitchen is being renovated and in order to create a new interior it is required to clean the walls from the previous coating, and the old tiles are planned to be reused, then all work is carried out only by hand without the use of special construction tools. A spatula is inserted between the tile and the wall at an angle of 30˚ and careful blows are applied with a hammer. After the trowel is firmly embedded, hold the tile with one hand, and with the other gently pull the handle of the trowel towards you.

You can determine how easy it will be to get rid of the old tile by tapping it before dismantling it. The sound will tell you how firmly the element is adhered to the wall surface. This will help you understand which tiles can be saved and which ones are not worth wasting time. After removing the first elements, it is worth visually determining the possible departure of the coating from the walls. The number of damaged tiles in most cases is 30% of the total number of products fixed to the surface of the walls.

An equally important stage in the work is the removal of the solution or adhesive composition from the surface of tiles or ceramics. It is necessary to clean the very surface of the walls, since further repairs without these manipulations will be impossible.

To achieve this goal, you will have to wet the composition again with water or special solutions, and in the case when mastic was used to fix the tiles on the walls, you will need to warm it up with a construction hairdryer, and then remove it with a spatula.

The detailed process of performing this construction operation can be seen by watching this video:

Self-repair of an apartment will not only save you a tangible amount of money, but also allow you to be sure that all the work performed is done with conscience. As a rule, if there is a desire and time, most home repair operations are not particularly difficult and they can be done by yourself or with the help of one or two family members.

What are the general options for "tiling"?

However, in the event of a major need or when you need to completely replace the wall and floor cladding, you should soberly assess your strengths and choose the most suitable option:

The entire scope of work is carried out by a hired master cladder. From the pros - you just choose the type of facing tiles, its colors and pay for the entire amount of work, and all the rest of the work is taken over by specialists. Among the shortcomings - good craftsmen estimate their work very dearly, and the actions of the "hack" are fraught with crumbling tiles in the shortest period of time;
You do all the work yourself. The cheapest option, but in this case you will have to master all the nuances of the work of "tilers" and buy a set of tools necessary for the work (tile cutter, spatula for applying mortar, etc.). The final result can be very disappointing for your other half, and you will definitely not experience the pleasure of the work done;
You are engaged in the preparatory stage of cleaning the walls from the old tiles, and you entrust the installation of the new one to the recommended person. This option is a compromise between options 1 and 2, then in this case high quality of work will be guaranteed at reasonable costs.

with a good power tool, the process will go faster

Do-it-yourself tile breaking

So, let's ask a question - "How to beat off old tiles in the bathroom or kitchen?"... For this we need:

A small wide-bladed hatchet or hammer and chisel. They are needed to beat off tiles from a concrete or brick base. Depending on the materials used and the conscientiousness of the master, the old tile may crumble from one touch of the hand, or you will have to knock each tile apart;
Safety glasses and gloves. These things will allow you to protect your eyes and skin of your hands from small and rather sharp fragments that can form when pieces of ceramics are chipped off;
Garbage bags. For these purposes, it will be preferable to use containers made of dense polyethylene, in which all the broken tiles are collected. The remaining intact tiles can be given to those who wish for use in the country or in an individual garage.

Technology:

The process of removing the old tile is not difficult.... Work should start from the top of the wall and then gradually go down to the bottom.

If work is being carried out in the area of the bathroom or sink, then the best option would be to either completely dismantle them, or cover them with protective materials to avoid damage to the enamel from an accidentally fallen fragment of the tile. Do not forget that any noisy repairs can be carried out only at the time permitted for this (usually it is from 8 to 22 hours on weekdays, and on holidays or weekends, you cannot bother neighbors at all).

Video: how to remove old tiles from the wall yourself?

In some cases, you can do without breaking the tiles:, but still, first think it over carefully.

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Discussion:

This is understandable if the tile sticks to the snot. Building mixtures are incomprehensible, and all kinds of lewdness. And if on cement, and even with the addition of some kind of glue. Hammer so that the neighbors hang themselves. I remember the film The Matrix, how there the tiles flew off from each poke ... This is the right job) I changed it without noise and dust.

I went to beat it off ... I wonder if the chelovek works and can only make repairs on weekends - what to do ??? It would be better to do it just on weekends and holidays, so that you can't make noise from 10 to 18, for example.

Hello
I beat off the tiles in the bathroom, the wall is a sheet, I'm not drywall
it was glued to the eyelids with cement, the tile cures well, the cement glue does not come off in general, you have to go through one tile with a puncher 10 times, the surface is now ideal for setting new glue, but still not even due to pieces of unbroken
I no longer have my strength, to plaster, or to leave it as it is and to level it painstakingly with a level, laying more glue ..? what glue would you recommend for such a case, thanks