Removing Tile Mortar From Walls

Always wear safety glasses when removing ceramic tile.

Removing tile mortar from walls.

Be careful not to exert too much pressure downward on the tile or you could cause it to crack. Use a chisel to scrape away the dried thin set carefully chipping it loose from the tile without scratching it or harming the tile itself. Tiles installed with thinset or another tile adhesive often require more work to remove them. If the tiles are grouted you will have to clear the grout away first.

A wide blade putty knife is helpful in prying the tiles loose. Use a ball peen or masonry hammer and cold chisel to tap the pieces free. Begin by giving the tile a good cleaning with a sponge and soapy citric acid water as a descaling solution and use a toothbrush to deep clean grout to remove deposits and stains that may make removal more challenging. Once those tiles loosen pry them off.

Set your sander to the lowest setting and be extremely careful not to grind up the surface of the tile. Most likely though if the tiles were installed onto drywall the drywall will be damaged during removal. Wipe the tiles down with a dry rag. After removing the grout use a small pry bar or a similar tool to pry the tiles away from the wall.

Use the grout scraper to remove any thin set from the grout lines that is more than 40 of the tile thickness. It depends on a lot of variables in place at the time the tile was set but it comes down to how well the tile is bonded to the mortar. Removing tile from older style mortar walls can be very challenging. Sometimes you can get a flat chisel behind the tiles and pop them off one at a time almost whole.

Start removing mortar from tile with the tiles free from the wall or floor you can now start cleaning them so can reuse the tile. There are inexpensive tools designed specifically for grout removal. Fit the oscillating tool with a blade specially intended for removing tile grout. If any stubborn traces are left you may need to gently chisel it away or sand it off with a rotary sander and 50 grit sanding disk.

Thinset mortar is generally used as the adhesive when tiling a wall. Lay the tiles face down and use the putty knife to scrape across the tile back removing as much old mortar as possible. When the old tile falls off or is removed from the wall the thinset that was initially used to attach it has dried and become. Wipe the tiles dry with a rag then scrub them again with the textured side of a kitchen sponge.