Bath Renovations – Saving Money with Tile and Mud Bed Removal

I mentioned in my first post about our Primary Bath Reno that the idea of demolition wasn’t one that had occurred to me at first. As we sat in a holding pattern with the shower un-usable and waiting for availability of our tile installer, I knew I could begin demo without too much of a time crunch on myself.

The demolition served multiple purposes in my case, from speeding up the timeline to helping us solidify our plans. It was also oddly satisfying. But primarily, it saved us some money. Based on some of the numbers that I received from contractors, doing the demo ourselves could have saved us $2 to $3 thousand in labor costs and dump fees. I did incur some costs to demo, including purchasing a new tool for the shower bed demo, new face masks, dump fees, and garbage bags. But these were minimal.

I had never thought I would be able to easily remove tile, especially by hand. But honestly, it wasn’t that hard! I watched a few YouTube videos and got to work, learning as I went.

Notes

If a bath gut is in your future, you absolutely can save money ripping out the tile yourself. You might even find you enjoy it! Don’t let inexperience completely deter you, but definitely keep these things in mind:

1. Be safe – You WILL need a mask to protect your lungs along with ear and eye protection. Gloves and long clothes are also a good idea. I didn’t always go that route because, fun story, we had no A/C upstairs while this was going on and it was HOT!
2. Be mindful of plumbing and electrical. You will see in my demo that I worked around all of the plumbing and came in from the side to be sure I wasn’t damaging any pipes or fixtures. When in doubt, leave those last parts for a professional.
3. Give yourself a little time. This work, especially if done by hand, is taxing. Working straight through a day would have been tough for me even if I’d had the time to devote to it.

Supplies

1. Hammer
2. Pry Bar
3. Dust Masks
4. Ear Protection
5. Safety goggles
6. Utility Knife
7. Rotary Hammer (optional for tile, necessary for mud bed)
8. Tile Chisel (for rotary hammer)
9. Construction Bags

Note on rotary hammer: If you need to use power, rotary hammers are not too expensive. I got mine for $179. They can also be available for rent from your local big box stores or rental agency. Be sure to get a rotary hammer and not a hammer drill.

Video

I have notes below, but be sure to also check out my video below in conjunction with this post.

Starting

Getting started is probably the trickiest part.

1. Look for an edge that you can get good access to. Otherwise, use your hammer to break the tile until you can create a spot to begin with your pry bar. Applying some painter’s tape to the initial spot you brake may help reduce splintering.
2. Using your pry bar and hammer, tap from the side of the tile until you can get leverage to push the pry bar under and pry the tile off the surface. I preferred to try to keep the tiles as in tact as possible (to keep cleanup easier and reduce flying shards), but sometimes they will splinter anyway. Just keep going.
3. Sometimes, the tile would come apart with the mortar attached to the tile, and sometimes the tile pulled away from the mortar, leaving it on the fiber cement backer board. Occasionally, everything pulled off together (which was kinda fun).
4. Both ends of the pry bar can be useful, depending on the size and location of the tile. Try each side to get the hang of what works best for you. (I will say from experience that using the flatter end puts your wrist in a bit more of a dangerous position.)

Ceramic tiles

The wall and hexagon floor tiles on my shower were ceramic, which broke a little easier than the porcelain tiles on the rest of the bathroom floor. Some of the wall tiles pulled off easier than others.

The ceramic hexagon tiles were mounted to a mosaic mesh. Popping them off by hand was pretty easy, but it was time consuming since there were so many little pieces.

If you are pulling off small tiles, using a rotary hammer may be helpful. Although I found it easier to remove the larger wall pieces manually, once I got to the mosaic hexagon tiles, the rotary hammer began to flex its muscles. I was able to flip up the hexagon pieces pretty easily.

Porcelain Tiles

The thicker porcelain tiles on our main bath floor were a little tough to get started sometimes. In this case, I hit the pry bar straighter towards the floor (pic on the left) into the grout line to get some leverage, then I angled it more under the tile to help pop it up.

Backer Board

Even if you are installing new tile, you will most likely not be able to reuse the backer board. Removing it isn’t difficult, and it breaks apart easily. You can focus on prying up the nails to pull it off in larger pieces, or just break it off in smaller chunks and pry out the nails afterwards.

Mud Beds

Removing this mud bed couldn’t be done without power. Check out the pic below to see just how thick it was. I purchased the rotary hammer above with a tile chisel bit to get that done.

Getting started is the tough part. If you have a shower curb, and the concrete is completely enclosed on the sides, it can be tough to do the initial cut. Just be patient and work the bit into one spot until you can work that spot into rubble. After creating that initial hole and making some wiggle room, it will be easier to break off chunks. Once I had more open space, I placed my bit parallel to the edge, about 1″ in, and broke the concrete in strips.

Once you’ve gone through all of it, you will end up with a pile of rubble like this that can be dumped with the construction bags.

Plumbing

As I didn’t know how the pipes were laid out behind the wall. I carefully came from the sides. As I opened more of the wall up, I could see the pipes and safely remove the rest of the tile. If in doubt, leave it for a professional.

Ready to Go

This bathroom reno has been an evolving process as our plans changed. But doing the demo really helped us save money and see the plans better. Here is where we were after shower room demo but before framing and vanity area demo.

And here is where we are after framing and ready for tile.

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