Removing Kitchen Tiles From Wall

Tiles installed with thinset or another tile adhesive often require more work to remove them.

Removing kitchen tiles from wall.

A grout scraper can get between the ceramic without cracking them and causing serious damage when you remove the tile backsplash. Beginning at a point of easy access e g on one side of your backsplash carefully tap a chisel with a hammer between the back of the tile and the wall. In an ideal world a few wiggles of the screwdriver or whatever tool you re using would give you enough leverage to remove the tile from the wall with your gloved hand. This approach should let you save more of your tiles for reuse unless the tiles are unusually well adhered or a relatively recent installation.

For semi soft adhesive mastic use 120 grit sandpaper to remove it from the wall. Just wanted to share how i removed small tile from our kitchen. To remove thinset use a stiff putty knife and some elbow grease to scrape it from the wall. Allow to fully dry.

The method used to attach the tiles to the wall affects the way the tiles come off. The grout that binds the tiles together and to the wall needs to be gently removed. Give it a try by inserting a chisel putty knife or other flat tool in between the tile and the wall almost parallel to the wall. If it doesn t tap the screwdriver with the hammer to give you extra leverage.

While tile is a long term decorative feature in most kitchens you may want to remove wall tiles if you update your cabinets or remodel your kitchen. Once the tile is removed from the wall put it to one side for reuse or disposal of later. Work the grout scraper in a downward motion and work side to side to gently loosen the tile from its hold against the wall. Fill drywall gouges with drywall joint compound and sand it smooth.