Breaking Up Old Tile Floor


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Old 01-30-07, 03:01 AM
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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!
 
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Old 01-30-07, 04:26 AM
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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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Old 01-30-07, 06:17 PM
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Are you suggesting that I breakup the concrete bed when I break up the tile? I was hoping to just reuse the concrete bed.

Thanks.
 
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Old 01-30-07, 06:58 PM
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Wink

The tool rentals here have a power chisel with a wide 4" thin blade on it . It just get under the tile and pops it up off the cement
 
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Old 01-30-07, 08:29 PM
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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.
 
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Old 01-31-07, 11:19 AM
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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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Old 01-31-07, 12:11 PM
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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.
 
 

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