The Lemon Fool

Hello Fools

I am in the process of removing a downstairs bathroom from a room that was part of a garage conversion (no big loss, there is another downstairs loo). I've stripped the wall tiles, taken down the false ceiling and knocked down the partition wall ready for new plasterboard to be attached on the walls and ceiling. But the floor tiles are causing endless grief.

It appears that the tile is bonded via tile cement to another tile, bonded with tile cement to a scree layer which in turn is bonded with some mega-adhesive to the plywood floor. Attempts to knock the tiles off with a lump hammer and bolster chisel are slow, only small pieces come away and it is tearing small chunks of the ply floor.

I'm not bothered about the ply at all, and have no issue replacing it, so, what would be the easiest way to remove it? Drill a series of holes through the tile/cement/ply and smash it through with the hammer, then locate the joists and pry it away with a wrecking bar? His seems the most obvious approach, just wondered if there is a better way? As it's a garage conversion, the joists are attached by brackets to upright posts bolted to the wall, so would clearly like to avoid snapping them off the bracket. It's a small area, maybe 3 feet by 6 to 7 feet?

TIA

I've seen several tradesmen removing ceramic tiles and the tool of choice seems to be an SDS drill with a chisel attachment.

This setup seems to work a treat, and it's possible to get cranked chisel attachments which help the tool to get under the tiles.

Thanks Staffordian - I have a B&D hammer drill, is this the same thing? THough I don't recall seeing a 'button' on it that stops the rotation of the drill?

NapoleonD wrote:Thanks Staffordian - I have a B&D hammer drill, is this the same thing? THough I don't recall seeing a 'button' on it that stops the rotation of the drill?

You can tell by looking at the drills it takes. If it's SDS they will be like this...

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-sds-pl ... eces/596fx

The shanks are different to 'old fashioned' drills.

You need a proper SDS drill. I'm very happy with my Titan from Screwfix https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb653 ... 240v/6846h

Have used it to destroy a reinforced concrete pizza oven in the garden.

You'd also need to get an angled chisel blade as mentioned.

Scott.

NapoleonD wrote:Thanks Staffordian - I have a B&D hammer drill, is this the same thing? THough I don't recall seeing a 'button' on it that stops the rotation of the drill?

A standard hammer drill will not have the ability to hammer without rotating, others have linked to the bit types SDS drills use.

It's one of those tools I've always hankered after but never actually needed, but Screwfix tools are generally well regarded, so the Titan linked to might well be a toy worth acquiring

Other than the Titan drills you may find what you need at Aldi or Lidl, they do have SDS drills from time to time. They are cheap and cheerful but do get the job done. Not what you want if you are going to use it a lot but they do have a 3 year guarantee so would at least see you through this job.

Can't you ply over the floor tiles?

It might be easier to remove the ply starting with an area slightly bigger than the tiled area levering up sections using a hammer/crowbar. I'd definitely suggest wearing eye protection.

Ply board is quite cheap..

monabri wrote:It might be easier to remove the ply starting with an area slightly bigger than the tiled area levering up sections using a hammer/crowbar. I'd definitely suggest wearing eye protection.

Ply board is quite cheap..

To be honest I very much doubt tryjng to lever ply covered in screed an two layers of tiles, potentially screwed down, will be easier than an SDS.

Wizard wrote:

monabri wrote:It might be easier to remove the ply starting with an area slightly bigger than the tiled area levering up sections using a hammer/crowbar. I'd definitely suggest wearing eye protection.

Ply board is quite cheap..

To be honest I very much doubt tryjng to lever ply covered in screed an two layers of tiles, potentially screwed down, will be easier than an SDS.

It ended up being a best of both worlds in the end. Borrowed an SDS and chisel bit from a neighbour which tore through the tiles (easier than doing so with a lump hammer, but still takes some effort), but the ply was still a problem. In the end, after uncovering some of the ply, just wedged the crowbar under the sheeting and attempted to level sections off. Most were brittle and just broke away in palm size pieces but managed to pry up some larger sections, to reveal the layers as:

tile
tile cement
tile
tile cement
scree
bonding gloop
thin ply sheet 1
thin ply sheets 2 (in long narrow rectangular strips??)
thin ply 3
thick ply boards, the actual floor, which stayed in place

Just about broke my back doing it, but hard satisfying work. Beats IT anyday.

Thanks for all the tips, the room is on the way to being the twins playroom!

ND

NapoleonD wrote:

Wizard wrote:

monabri wrote:It might be easier to remove the ply starting with an area slightly bigger than the tiled area levering up sections using a hammer/crowbar. I'd definitely suggest wearing eye protection.

Ply board is quite cheap..

To be honest I very much doubt tryjng to lever ply covered in screed an two layers of tiles, potentially screwed down, will be easier than an SDS.

It ended up being a best of both worlds in the end. Borrowed an SDS and chisel bit from a neighbour which tore through the tiles (easier than doing so with a lump hammer, but still takes some effort), but the ply was still a problem. In the end, after uncovering some of the ply, just wedged the crowbar under the sheeting and attempted to level sections off. Most were brittle and just broke away in palm size pieces but managed to pry up some larger sections, to reveal the layers as:

tile
tile cement
tile
tile cement
scree
bonding gloop
thin ply sheet 1
thin ply sheets 2 (in long narrow rectangular strips??)
thin ply 3
thick ply boards, the actual floor, which stayed in place

Just about broke my back doing it, but hard satisfying work. Beats IT anyday.

Thanks for all the tips, the room is on the way to being the twins playroom!

ND

Sounds like you may have gained a couple of cms of extra headroom!

Mike88 wrote:Can't you ply over the floor tiles?

Yeah, I just laid a pergo floor over a tile floor in my basement. Tile floors are usually level and it only took me a day.

My neighbour has a petrol-driven angle grinder if I really wanted to excavate. I have to disconnect all the smoke and CO detectors first of course.

Hi Lootman / Mike88

Lootman wrote:

Mike88 wrote:Can't you ply over the floor tiles?

Yeah, I just laid a pergo floor over a tile floor in my basement. Tile floors are usually level and it only took me a day.

My neighbour has a petrol-driven angle grinder if I really wanted to excavate. I have to disconnect all the smoke and CO detectors first of course.

This wasn't really an option - the floor where the bathroom was sloped into the middle for drainage from the shower, and the tiled bathroom floor was a cm or so higher than the laminate floor in the rest of the room once the stud wall came down. And getting the wall tiles off the wall where they met the floor only became possible once the floor was gone (though the workman could well be to blame here).

Next steps are stripping paper from the ceiling, putting up new plasterboard, plaster skim and the job in the world I despise above all others - painting the ubgger.

NapoleonD wrote:Hi Lootman / Mike88

Lootman wrote:

Mike88 wrote:Can't you ply over the floor tiles?

Yeah, I just laid a pergo floor over a tile floor in my basement. Tile floors are usually level and it only took me a day.

My neighbour has a petrol-driven angle grinder if I really wanted to excavate. I have to disconnect all the smoke and CO detectors first of course.

This wasn't really an option - the floor where the bathroom was sloped into the middle for drainage from the shower, and the tiled bathroom floor was a cm or so higher than the laminate floor in the rest of the room once the stud wall came down. And getting the wall tiles off the wall where they met the floor only became possible once the floor was gone (though the workman could well be to blame here).

Next steps are stripping paper from the ceiling, putting up new plasterboard, plaster skim and the job in the world I despise above all others - painting the ubgger.

Don't bother with stripping paper from the ceiling if you are overboarding it. Just overboard the lot, skim and the jobs done.