Floor tiles will not come up

[Yooj]

I am having real problems taking up some floor tiles...
I have ceramic floor tiles in the bathroom, put down by the previous owner, who was a bit of a bodger in terms of DIY...He has laid the floor tiles on MDF (around 15mm depth board)...He appears to have used a decent floor tile adhesive, as the tiles are a real bitch to get up.
I am currently using a cold chisel and a lump hammer as my SDS is not touching them...
The real problem is that the MDF is breaking up using the chisel, and it is just absorbing too much energy from the hammer, and as such the it is taking an age.
Anyone have any better ideas of how to get these up?
One thing I am looking at is just removing a channel of tile over the joists to expose the screws attaching the board onto the joist, and then using my circular saw to try to get the boards, tiles and all up, section by section...but this will be a real ball ache, as there is a maze of pipework under the floor, and I really want to avoid this is possible.
Thanks in advance.
Yooj

[garythetiler]

keep trying is the only answer but can you please ring the previous owner and find out what he used as i want to buy some because tiles normally fly off of mdf

[whitebeam]

As a diyer he used some top gear

[SandyFloor]

I usually use a 5ft. crowbar by forcing it under the board and lifting.

[Yooj]

Only on the floor mind...

The ejit had boxed in his over-bath shower pipework in MDF and tiled over the mdf...needless to say, I just had to look at it and the tiles fell off, hence why I thought the floor would be a breeze...

Yooj

[Yooj]

I usually use a 5ft. crowbar by forcing it under the board and lifting.

Yes, might well give that a go.

Yooj

[Ken Bruty]

I bet he used a 2 part flexi with acrylic mix, an absolute bleeder to remove. On one job I had to hire a breaker that was as tall as me with a spade chisel end about 6 inches wide, it was damn heavy and it took me all day to remove 12m2, I was absolutely mullered by the end of the day. I'm afraid there's no easy way. Speedy hire do them.

[Yooj]

Looks like I am going to have to get medieval with the floor then...

Cheers for the advice.

Yooj

[Scott]

Yep sounds like rubber crumb. I had this and SDS and hammer chisel doesnt work as it absorbs all the impact and vibration into the adhesive. I had an 6mt floor to do and it took 2 of us almost 2 days.

If you can find any of the screws he used to fix the MDF down then see if he did it in a grid. Mine was really lucky as whoever laid the floor put screws at exactly 200mm centres. I had to smash through the tiles and undo the screws then run a circular saw through a grout joint and cut the floor into sections. I tried to jemmy the floor up but pulled up the floor boards as well so dont go to gung ho trying to lift it incase you damage a pipe etc.

[jay]

best to remove mdf to so lift the lot

[timeless john]

36 years ago I asked my Uncle (who worked for polyfilla - Henkel Chemicals) for a product that would take wallpaper off!
He advised me to use 'elbow grease' and I asked who stocked it

I believe the product is still available!

[heavytrevy]

sds tile chisels work. needs to be 50mm wide at least, then sharpen so it cuts the rubber adhesive as it goes.

Trev

[Yooj]

...He advised me to use 'elbow grease' and I asked who stocked it

I believe the product is still available!

Quick update (apologies for taking time to update, been busy)...

However, in the end I used timeless john's advice (well his uncle's anyway), and just got really stuck in...It took another whole day, and most of the MDF came up with it, though it was being replaced with WBP anyway, so no great shakes...Man I do not want to see another of those floors anytime soon.

Cheers for all the advice.

Yooj

[Ken Bruty]

36 years ago I asked my Uncle (who worked for polyfilla - Henkel Chemicals) for a product that would take wallpaper off!
He advised me to use 'elbow grease' and I asked who stocked it

I believe the product is still available!

[Scott]

Well done

[doug boardley]

how many tins of elbow grease did it take?