Removing Tile Adhsive


  #1  
Old 01-04-02, 05:22 AM
almostgreen
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Post Removing Tile Adhsive

I had several loose ceramic tiles on the bottom of my shower wall, and of course the wallboard behind them is shot. I will be replacing the wallboard with cement board and replacing the tiles.

What is the best way to remove the previous adhesive from these tiles? All I've tried so far is a putty knife and that's extremely slow at best. I'm guessing I'll need some sort of solvent.

I noticed on another post someone talking about GooGone, DeSolvIt or even a heat gun. Would these be best for this project or are there better ideas?
 
  #2  
Old 01-04-02, 05:46 AM
G
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For the ones on the wallboard. If you are real careful to be able to remove the board with the tile in place, break the grout line and soak the whole thing wallboard and all in a 5 gallon pail of water. The drywall will dissolve and the adhesive probably will too. When they were building my house the also we building one next door to me. Apparently they installed the wrong color tile in the bathroom and when I went by to look at the progress on my house, I found just about 3 full wall from around the tub that still had the tile attached. Tried the scraper method to peel the tile up, but then it hit me that the wall board was water soluable. Did the soak routine and got almost 2 boxes of the same color tile that were installed in my bathroom. The only caveat is that you have to let the tiles dry out for a couple of days since they will absord some water too
 
  #3  
Old 01-04-02, 05:50 AM
almostgreen
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Garywms,
Thanks for your reply. I was just going to replace the loose ones and all of the tiles in their horizontal rows. The rest of the tiles above seem to be very tight in place as I tried to put a putty knife behind them and lift them off and they wouldn't budge. I didn't see any need to pull them.

On the ones that I have already pulled the wallboard is gone as it was so wet and rotted that it pulled right off. However, the tile adhesive is still stuck to the tiles. I'm guessing I need to get that off to get a good level "set" when I re-set them, and that's what I need some advice on removing.
 
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Old 01-04-02, 05:53 AM
G
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Try the wetting routine. When I did mine not only did the drywall dissolve, but the adhesive came off the tile just by pulling it off like a rubber band.
 
  #5  
Old 01-04-02, 06:08 AM
almostgreen
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I'll put them in a bucket tonight. Thanks.
 
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Old 01-05-02, 07:09 AM
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Makes you wonder???

Water soluble adhesive in a wet area. LOL! I wonder how low they bid that job to cut corners like that. Definitely uneducated tile hacks there. They got their money and ran.

It is going to be hard to fix this without a total demo, and doing it right. The way it should have been done in the first place.

Mastic tile adhesive is junk. You can see the problems it has caused you.
 
  #7  
Old 01-05-02, 11:06 AM
J
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I agree with Perry. I'd tear the whole thing out a build a decent shower.
 
  #8  
Old 01-08-02, 06:27 AM
almostgreen
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So, Perry & John, what you're saying is that I've got to ditch all of the tile that I currently have (not that crazy about the color, but I'm on a budget) and start all over again?

Isn't there a "middle of the road"? The house is 15 years old and this is (I think) the first time these tile have been touched. The rest of the tile are in good shape and very solid.

Is the most expensive solution the only solution?
 
 

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