Removing Over Tiling - Tile Advice

[mark43766]

Hello,

We have a 1920's tiled fireplace which at some point as been over-tiled with mosaics. We want to expose the originals which has some particularly nice curved glazed tiles, but are struggling to remove the mosaics, and have in a couple of places damaged the original tiles where the adhesive seems to have bonded very well.

So far we have been progressing with a filling knife and hammer trying to work under the tiles and break them off. The adhesive left behind can be scrapped off and cleans with some elbow grease, but I was wondering if there are any better tried and tested techniques for removing tiles or weakening tile adhesive.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Taylormade]

Depends on the adhesive used but start with a steam stripper and soak the adhesive well.

 

[Lithofin BOB]

If soaking the tiles , could you add a small amount of a grout cleaner to this solution as this may aid / soften the adhesive possibly easing removal ,also this can then be used to clean the face, test on the face of already removed tiles for suitability. Glass and ceramic should be fine ,but test.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

:welcome: And good luck!

 

[Dan]

How did you get on with this?

 

[mark43766]

Thanks for your responses, and interest in my 'project'.

Using a wall paper steamer has helped (not finished yet, but haven't done any lately!), but it takes a long time to get any moisture to penetrate through. My steamer provides about 1 hour of steam, in which time I can remove an area around 30cm x 30cm.

The key seems to be getting started and creating a route for steam to get in. I'm going to try scraping the grout out, as this means more moisture can get to a bigger proportion of the tile, hopefully making them easier to 'pop' off.

Below is a before shot - i'll take a picture this evening of where I have got to. Other than minor damage the tiles below are in great condition; we're happy to accept the odd crack and bit of missing glazed surface in exchange for the original tiles.

 

[Dan]

Look forward to the next photo.