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A friend of mine (NOT me, really!) put tile down directly on his plywood subfloor using thinset and “mortar milk” (he calls it). His tile is now crumbling & his wife wants something different anyway.
Yanking the tiles up shouldn’t be too hard, but how should he go about getting the mortal off the plywood subfloor?
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Replies
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long handled floor scraper w/ lotsa elbow grease..
watch yer eyes!
*I just love prior guys who intall tile on plywood incorrectly. Makes me look like a genius.
*Try a air chisel would make it a little easier/faster.
*try breaking the bond with a strong vinegar solution..hey, it smells nice anyway...
*It really depends. We recently tore up some quarry tile that was (apparently) properly installed on plywood underlayment that was installed on the plywood subfloor.The quarry tile came up with a lot of persuasion, but the plywood was screwed about 4" o.c. Since all the screw heads were filled with thinset and tended to strip we really wanted to clean the thinset off of the ply. We scraped, chiseled, etc. and found it was going to be really time consuming to achieve a smooth surface. We ended up tearing up the plywood with digging bars, chisels, etc. We ended up with splinters and mortar dust after about two days of work for maybe 150 s.f. It was a ball buster.Your's might come up easier if it is already crumbling. Best of luck.
*The best bet is what Dan-O said. Think of a shovel handle mated to a flat fairly sharp blade. Roofers sometimes use it tearing off old asphalt.You got an edge, leverage with the long handle, and force as supplied by you. Slice of cake (piece of pie) easy. 150 sf would take one guy with a good edge about 4 hours. The only problem is sometimes digging the edge into the plywood. Don't fight it, use the force.
*might knock off the loose stuff with a floor sander and go from there- wonderboard (or other) over thinset- screwed down- tile over. worked for me in the past
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A friend of mine (NOT me, really!) put tile down directly on his plywood subfloor using thinset and "mortar milk" (he calls it). His tile is now crumbling & his wife wants something different anyway.
Yanking the tiles up shouldn't be too hard, but how should he go about getting the mortal off the plywood subfloor?