Removing tiles tiled on tiles

[amyboo]

The stupid previous owners who installed my quite nice kitchen decided to tile the wall tiles on top of the existing tiles. We've got to have a pipe fixed that runs behind the tiles, so thought we may as well fix the messy tiles at the same time, as we don't really like them and the tiling is pretty badly done.

My question is, will this be an absolute nightmare to do, seeing as the tiles are on top of the old tiles? Will it be easier to try and get the tiles off one layer at a time? And, are we likely to lose large parts of wall in the process?

 

[jefoss]

ahhh the good old cant be arsed to do the job properly in the first place comes to light. (previous owners i am reffering to)


your best bet is whack F*** out of them and get it all off at once, then see how your wall fares afterwards, and adjust accordingly.

 

[r896neo]

It is best to remove them all at once unless your skilled and patient with a small grinder. You will almost certainly lose large areas of plaster!

This job will be dirty and had a habit of escalated very quickly from

knock those 3 or 4 tiles off...... with those ones are awful too lets just take them off....... I suppose we may as well take the whole lot off.......

Before you know it you'll be bask to the original brick/blockwork/boarding and wanting it plastered!!

 

[Master of None]

Would any one consider tiling on tiles already tiled on tiles .
My parents old house had 7 layers of wall paper in the living room when they moved in and decorated. Mind you it was not all bad... It turned out to be much bigger than they first thought.

 

[david_uk]

Would anybody tile on tile on tiles?

Not seen this in a house yet, but I'm sure someone has!! Either you buy the place and don't know the tiles have been tiled on already and do it again, or you are a quick fix merchant.

But to go back to the original question, I think at this point I'd be realistically looking to remove the tiles as the pipe needs to be fixed whatever, repair the walls and re-tile properly.

Yes, it's probably going to be a nightmare whether you try to just remove three tiles of the top layer, or the entire wall. So I'd say bite the bullet and go for the proper job.

 

[amyboo]

Hmm, well you've all confirmed what I suspected. The leaking pipe is very minor and irritatingly not covered by the insurance until it actually causes a disaster! So, I think we'll crack on with the retiling when we've got some money in a couple of months, and get rid of all the old tiling as we go.... Thankfully, I, unlike the previous owners, have a decent tiler who is a complete perfectionist when it comes to lining tiles up, corners, etc so I'm sure he'll do a much better job than they did!