Ceramic Tile Removal

Well, for all you nonexistant readers and DIYers out there - I have a super little known secret to share with you: ceramic tile removal from concrete is ridiculous. I mean - ridiculous.

First, I thought - we've removed ceramic tile before, this shouldn't be so bad. So I tried to get the tile up with just a hammer, chisel, and crow bar. I started in an inconspicuous area, underneath the vanity - behold:

The inconspicuous area under the vanity: note the chipped tile that hasn't budged at all.

I've been informed that this hammer was purchased at the dollar store... 

After switching to an actual hammer made with real metal, this is where we got.

Surprise of the day: there are actually 2 layers of heinous wallpaper in this bathroom - sweet!

It was not long after this point that I discovered something truly horrifying: the ease with which these initial tiles came up was equal to the difficulty of the subsequent tiles. Whoever installed this stuff saw fit to randomly include sticky black construction adhesive under SOME tiles but not others. After struggling for 20-30 minutes with that, we decided our lives would be easier if we just had the right tools. Enter HD tool rental center and a demolition hammer. Though this still wasn't the easiest thing in the world, it was much easier than it would have been by hand... and by that I mean, we would have given up and just buried the house if by hand was the only way to accomplish this!

The demolition hammer in action:

And just so people don't read this, attempt to do it on their own, and then blame us for the happy surprises that come with ceramic tile removal:

1. The demolition hammer is a piece of heavy machinery and should be treated as such - ALWAYS use appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment) like ear plugs, safety glasses, and gloves.
2. If you don't use gloves, you will get blisters (we sure did).
3. The grout/thinset under the tile will come out with the non-powered scrapers available at your local HD or Lowe's, but your time will be much better spent by just paying the extra hours of rental on the demolition hammer and using it to get all the grout/thinset off of your concrete.
4. Tile is very heavy, especially if you have >100 square feet of it. Don't fill up a contractor's trash bag with tiles and expect it not to burst open - because it will. We used a heavy duty gardener's wagon with a heavy cardboard box on the bottom to get our tile out of the house.

And - after all that, here's what the floor looks like now: