How To Easily Remove Tile Flooring  

Take care of knees.kmee pads please

I know what you mean. It’s hard for me to call it bad because I’ve been in the house for 10 years and never had any issues with the floor but I was definitely surprised with how easily they came out and how little mortar was under them. I’ll be installing Schluter underlayment under the new floor so hopefully it makes it harder on the next person who decides to rip it out. Thanks so much for the comment and for watching! Waterproofing video next week and tile the week after that. I’d love to hear your thoughts on those when they come out.

You popped up in my feed as I am having my house remodeled. They started with the bathroom first and the tiles were stuck directly to the plywood. However, the original builders used some kind of adhesive and when the team was ripping out tiles they were ripping out plywood as well. They were nice enough to replace it all with no charge and assure me that the new floor would be installed properly.

Exactly

That floor was down for many years with no issues, guess it wasn't that badly done

Yeah those tiles were not stuck at all. When it's done right you never get lucky and usually doesn't come up in 1 piece but 1 million pieces.

Amen to that. Had to demo a 20foot fireplace that didn’t have a single one of the 4 foot by 8 foot tiles installed correctly. They basically popped off with just your hands

Those DIYers and hack job contractors keep the skilled ones busy that’s for damn sure

@@nickmoser8235 Probably guys out there that do a much better job with contract work than you I bet. Big man.

Thank you so much! And yeah I really got lucky on this demo. Now there is DITRA under the new floor, that will be good for me not having a cracked floor but no fun for the next person to rip it out. Thanks for the comment and for watching!

Great point, I did good about the safety glasses this time but gloves would be a big improvement for safety and comfort. Thanks for pointing it out and thanks for watching!

Yes! Also, make sure they are cut resistant. I had leather gloves and a small shard cut through it like butter and got me a bit. Leather was better than nothing though.

That sounds awesome I’m sure it works great. This option works well for me but like with most things there are multiple good ways to achieve a goal. I look forward to trying a chipping hammer some time soon. Thanks for the tip and for watching!

You don’t necessarily need a mask when doing demo by hand. You’re creating very very little fine dust with a hammer and pry bar. If you’re using any kind of tool that kicks fine silica dust into the air, you absolutely should wear a p100 mask. He should probably wear one during the scraping though. Also, while wearing a mask when demoing anything is generally the right choice regardless, the frequency and amount of exposure is the most important part to consider in terms of health impact. While it’s true silica dust can remain in your lungs indefinitely, it takes heavy exposure or a short period of time (still months) or light to moderate exposure over years to see health impacts. But once again, always wear a mask if you can, and especially when in an indoor space with fine dust being kicked around. When outdoors and/or using hand tools with low dust, masks are not always necessary

@@TheHeadincharge Thanks for the instruction. Worth more reading your comments than watching this video, sad to say. I had to wear the full mask, goggles and gloves. Each tile fought me to the end and were destroyed getting them off. Put on properly obviously.

I've seen a lot of tile floors installed this way and they usually seem to hole up okay but I agree that it's not ideal. I'm happy that I can say the new floor has a layer of DITRA on it. Thanks for watching!

Great point, thanks for shouting it out, it definitely saves a lot of trouble down the road, but it's not something you always think about in time. Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but thank you for learning from it and sharing so someone else might avoid the same issue, that's what it's all about. Have a great one and thanks again for watching!

You’re so welcome I’m really glad it was helpful to you. Thanks for watching!

I’ve torn up a lot as a hardwood floor installer and out of the maybe 30 tile floors I tore up thinset directly to the subfloor had not one cracked tile.

Thanks for the tip I’m sure that would work awesome too. This way wasn’t that bad though. I had all the tile up in about 40 minuet and that included filming, but I’m sure a hammer drill would work as well or faster. Like with most things there are many good ways to solve a problem this was just one way. Thanks for sharing and for watching!

That’s a great tip thank you! I’ve also found wetting down the thin set before scraping both makes it easier to remove and cuts down on the dust getting in the air. Thanks again for the tip and for watching!

On a concrete subfloor that’d be ideal but on an improperly installed floor like this, a scraper is more than enough

That’s great advice, I look forward to giving them a shot! Thanks for watching!

Great question, I did it in two main shots the first was about 30 minuets of hard work which took off about 50% or the material. The second session I found out that if you wet the floor down it scrapes way easier and cut the dust down a ton once the floor was wet down I spent another 15-20 minuets getting everything else off. So about 50 total but if I started with a damp floor I might have been able to do it all in 30 or so. Hope that helps, thanks for the question and for watching!

Great question! Yes it will would great on a concrete floor. Here’s a link to the scrapper and all the other tools I used. Thanks for watching! www.shagtools.com/one-way-to-make-collaboration/

You’re absolutely right, no excuse for not using proper PPE and being as safe as possible. Thanks for watching and for the reminder to be safe, it’s always appreciated!

So true, thanks for pointing that out. Safety and comfort are always important and a reminder is always appreciated. Thanks for watching!

I suspect the homeowner watched a DIY and did it themselves.

Good point, that would be a different process to remove. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a video on that process too someday. Thanks for sharing and for watching!

​@@OneWayToMakewhy did you not use power tools? I'm not familiar with wooden houses as I'm from Europe and it's all brick or concrete and here we use electric tools to remove tiles.

That would also do the trick for sure and quickly, but this works too, goes relatively fast, and is actually pretty fun if you don’t have access to a rotary hammer. Good tip though, thanks for sharing it and for watching!

That’s an awesome tip! Thanks so much for sharing it I can’t wait to try it out on the next one!

That’s probably a good call. It happens a lot but from how easily this came out I wouldn’t recommend it. That being said I’ve been in this house for 8 years and never had an issue with this floor so I don’t want to speak to harshly of it, but when laying Ditra first is so easy why not just do it and save the worry. Thanks so much for watching!

@@OneWayToMake 👍

That sounds rough for sure. If I ever do I’ll make sure to share the process, thanks for the comment and for watching!

Thank you, safety is so important and I can definitely make some improvements on that front. Hearing protection isn’t something I thought about on this job though, thanks again for watching and the advice I’ll make sure to take it into account on the next one.

Great tip, a spade could be a good option as well and some knee pads would be a huge help. Thanks for the tip and for watching!

Yeah I know what you mean. I can’t complain too much because I never had any issues with the floor but that being said I feel way better now that the new floor is laid over DITRA. Thanks for watching!

There’s nothing wrong with that at all. We all start off a zero, it’s never to late to start or it’s amazing how fast we learn. Find a project that needs to get done, do some research, be safe, and give it a shot. Best of luck on all your future projects and thanks for watching!

Great tip! That would work well too but honestly this process wasn’t that bad at all. Two good options for sure thanks for pointing it out and thanks for watching!

That’s one tough baby 🥽👶🔨 but yes I see your point it was a nice way easy demo I lucked out, however the process works for any subfloor, it just might take a little longer. Thanks for watching!

Not totally sure if that’s a compliment or insult, I think it depends on the animal, are you thinking work horse? Or sloppy pig? Or maybe I’m way off base and you’re thinking gold fish or Guineafowl. Either way I’d love to know. Thanks for watching and for the comment! There’s a lot more videos to come in this tile floor series so stay tuned for plenty more animal work.

You are absolutely right, this would have made the process safer, especially during the scraping. I'll make sure to wear one on the next project. Thanks for looking out and the reminder to be as safe as possible, it's always a welcome one.

Those are all great points. I can’t complain too much about it because I’ve lived here for 8 years and never had any problems with the tile or floor but that being said, it did come up very easily. I installed Schluter Ditra over the subfloor before installing the new tile and I hope that makes for a nice flat, level and long lasting floor. Check out the other videos in the series to see how it went. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks so much for watching!

They definitely came up a lot easier then I anticipated. I can’t say too much bad about them because I’ve been here for 8 years and never had an issue with one breaking or coming loose but I do agree that it wasn’t installed how most would recommend. The new tile is installed now over Ditra and I hope to a longer lasting quality. Check out the series to see the whole process of you have time. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for watching and for the comment.

I have a hard time calling it horrible because I never had any issues with it in the 8 years I’ve been here, but it sure did come up easy, I’m glad I never dropped anything heavy on it. Thanks so much for watching and for the comment!