We have reasonable bathroom tiles but with a hideous grey border all the way around. Does anyone know the best way of removing just one row of tiles, or will it be a disaster ?? Some are stuck on the external brick walls and some on plasterboard. Thanks !
I did this recently so it is certainly possible with care. Unfortunately a lot depends on how well the tiles were stuck on it the first place which you wont know until you start removing them!
First of all make sure you can find replacement tiles of the exact same size. Tiles are usually nominal 4" or 6" square but a slight difference of a mm or so will mean that they wont fit!
Scrape as much of the grout out between the tiles using a stanley knife or similar. I then used a drill with a tile cutting bit to drill a series of holes in the tile to weaken it. Eventually I was able to break the tile by levering it with a screwdriver. Wear eye protection and gloves - the broken tiles are lethal.
The first tile is the hardest to remove - thereafter it is just a case of inserting a thin blade (eg a filling knife) behind the next tile and levering it off. Many of mine came off in one piece although, as I said, a lot depends on how well they were put on in the first place.
I found a club hammer to be an excellent tool for breaking up tiles,
unfortunately it also does an excellent job of breaking up the area of
unsupported plasterboard behind it.
So unless you want my title of DIY muppet of the year the above suggestion for removal looks good
Axminster Power Tools amongst others, sell a tool called Fein Multimaaster. It is a vibrating saw (and other things) which has a blade designed to remove the grout between tiles, and a scraper blade which will help lift them off the surface. It is one of the most useful tool I've come across for awkward jobs.
Sounds good, I bought one of those plastic handled serrated steel grout
scrapers, and in no time at all it was blunt enough to have been sold at Mothercare as a kiddies toy
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