Ripping up Ceramic/Thinset

ssgtjoenunez

Greetings!

So last weekend I ripped up some old ugly vinyl out of the kitchen and replaced it with porcelain. What an experience!

Well we have enough tile left (comfortably) to redo the entryway and half bath on the first floor. I've got over 110 square feet of tile left and less than 80 square foot of area to tile.

My question is this - the half bath has the vinyl which I'm MORE than familiar with since doing the kitchen. But the entryway has some cheap ceramic tile that will have to come up. Since its less than 50 sq ft I am thinking I dont need to rent anything crazy to get the actual tiles up as I can do that by hand. My question revolves mostly around the thinset underneath.

What is the best method to get the thinset up to expose the slab underneath? I've got a few pictures on my phone that I'll upload as soon as I'm done with this post to help make it easier.

Thanks!

ssgtjoenunez

Here are the pictures.

Attached Thumbnails

     

oh'mike

Is it over concrete or a plywood subfloor?

Lift up an air vent if you have one and see how it was installed---

Most times the demo and clean up can be done with the tools that you already own.

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ssgtjoenunez

Its on top of concrete. The slab is right underneath the tile as it was in the kitchen I did last weekend.

When I had to remove some excess thinset while doing the kitchen I just used a painters 5 in 1 to scrape the thinset off the concrete. Not that I want to do that for 50 sq ft of area but if it came down to it, is there anything preventing me from doing that? Its not a huge area so Im thinking that I might just do that to save money from having to rent any special tools (as I'll already be renting a tile saw for this project)

jeffnc

You can use a hammer and the scraper, or you can use a beefed up chisel. I like this sort of thing

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...sel-95507.html

You could also use a demo hammer, which would be overkill

http://www.harborfreight.com/10-amp-...mer-68148.html

If you have a recipro saw, this should work well. I have them and they work well - I don't recall using it on thinset specifically, but knowing how it works I'm sure it should work pretty well. (They recommend only the 2" one for thinset.)

http://www.spyderproducts.com/toolpages/spyder-scraper/

oh'mike

I've done exactly that---flat chisel and a hammer----if it turns nasty--renting a chipping hammer or buying a cheap grinder will finish up the tough stuff----

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ssgtjoenunez

I'm thinking this is the way to go since its such a small area with the thinset to demo.

The vinyl is an even small area but I am expecting as much trouble as the kitchen gave me. This time I'm going to try and use a heat gun to pull up more of the vinyl and adhesive before getting down on my hands and knees and scraping that nasty stuff up (or using the floor scraper which was not that useful either)

jeffnc

The Spyder also works very well on vinyl floors.

ssgtjoenunez

Anyone know where i can get that Spyder at a big box store? Lowes, HD, even a Grainger or Northern Tools? Since I want to start tomorrow I'd have to go and buy it somewhere to put it to use

jeffnc

Lowes carries it. Sometimes it goes on an end display and they are hard to locate.

ssgtjoenunez

I'm going to go find it today after work. This will be a huge help!

ssgtjoenunez

So I spent this past Friday ripping up the old vinyl from the half bath and the ceramic from the entryway. Using a hammer and chisel on the old thinset was not working so I picked up a cheap air hammer and went at it with that. It took a long time but I literally stripped that SOB right down to the slab.

The end result came out great...I've got some pictures of progress and after I finished. I have to post them from my phone so you can see them.

I still need to finish the reno on the half bath - I am going to be replacing the old cabinet with a pedestal sink and then paint and replace the mirror. There's some minor sheetrock damage that needs to be attended to and new shoe moulding needs to go down and baseboards where the old cabinet used to be.

Overall a successful two day project (demo Friday, tile Friday afternoon/evening, grout Saturday).

ssgtjoenunez

Here are the pics

Attached Thumbnails

         

   

oh'mike

Looking good-----demo can be so unpredictable-----

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ssgtjoenunez

I think of all the things I've learned between doing the kitchen and this entryway/half bath is that you are 100% right - demolition can be so unpredictable that its near impossible to properly plan timelines. Last time I ended up paying for two days of rental on the tile saw because demo took so long I couldnt get to the cut work till the second day. This time I planned for that same thing and didnt rent the saw till the second day but could have done it the first day.

That old thinset was really on there - It took a lot of work to get it off the floor but thankfully I had a good clean surface to work on when I was done with demo.