| Given the amount of work involved, and the degree | | | | edges of the tiles. Next, remove all the grout you |
| of difficulty, when you're looking at removing ceramic | | | | can between the tiles. They're glued to your wall or |
| tiles on the wall or floor, give some consideration to | | | | floor, so nothing is going to fall off when you do this. |
| whether you might be better off just replacing the | | | | But the grout must be removed, because in attaching |
| cracked or damaged ones. Of course, if you can't get | | | | them all together, it's like creating one giant sheet of |
| matching ones, that means doing the whole job over, | | | | ceramic, and it will be just as brittle as a single tile. So |
| but when you do, remember to buy enough tiles that | | | | forcing one tile, can end up breaking a number of |
| you have extras, so that it won't need to be | | | | them. |
| repeated again, should you ever have a couple of | | | | Once the grout is cleaned away, take a very thin |
| them damaged. | | | | putty knife and start by working a corner under the |
| Before starting a removal job, decide whether you | | | | edge of one tile. Work along the top, gradually |
| have anything there worth salvaging. It could be that | | | | inserting more of the blade as you go. You can use a |
| while you want to redecorate the shower stall, that | | | | hammer to gently tap the handle of the knife to help |
| tile would like great on the wall in the laundry room. | | | | insert it. When the blade is about halfway down the |
| And it can be used over again, as long as you are | | | | back of the tile, you can exert slow, upward |
| careful in removing it. Ceramic tile has lots of | | | | pressure, which should pop the tile off. |
| compression strength, but very little tensile strength. | | | | If you plan to re-use the tile, the backs will need to |
| That means you can put weight on it, but to twist or | | | | be cleaned, either with an adhesive remover, or by |
| bend the piece, will likely break it. | | | | grinding, if they were applied with thinset. |
| First, you'll need to remove any trim that covers the | | | | |