Breaking Up Old Tile Floor
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Breaking Up Old Tile Floor
Hi:
We have a 70+ year-old home. We want to replace the tile floor in a second-floor bathroom. The bed for the flooring is about 3-inches of concrete. What is the best method (manual v. power tool) for breaking up the old floor? Since the tile rests on concrete and not a wood or backer-board surface, does this add any twists to the job?
Thanks!
We have a 70+ year-old home. We want to replace the tile floor in a second-floor bathroom. The bed for the flooring is about 3-inches of concrete. What is the best method (manual v. power tool) for breaking up the old floor? Since the tile rests on concrete and not a wood or backer-board surface, does this add any twists to the job?
Thanks!
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Those mud set jobs were done over a layer of roofing paper. Sometimes, this won't be the case on a slab, but normally is. If there's tar or roofing paper under it, once you get a pry bar under enough of it to lift part of it, you should be able to break it up.
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Sorry, I misunderstood. When you said, "old floor", I thought you meant the whole thing. What Ed said, or a hand chisel and hammer. If you beat on it too much you'll probably render the old bed useless. I've never tried to salvage one myself, I just tear them out and start over with all fresh stuff. I can't say how successful you'll be, but you may as well give it a try.
#6
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I never try to save the old mud jobs. Theres to much time and effort involved to try to remove the tile with no or little damage to the mud bed. Then theres the work of cleaning up the high spots and filling in the low spots. You can demo the whole thing and have a new mud bed in before you'll get all that other work done. WOW is that old mud bed really 3"? Just noticed that. Whats under the mud?
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"What's under the mud"--the kitchen. A few years ago I remodeled the kitchen. I cut holes in the ceiling for standard-height can lights. I had to return some of the cans and get short-height cans because they were right under the wooden bed that holds the concrete.