How do I get ceramic floor tiles off a concrete floor?
The realistic methods, the dust control that is not optional, and the honest question of whether laying over the tiles would be a better decision.
- Difficulty
- advanced
- Time
- 8 hr
- Read
- 3 min
- Safety
- warning
Short answer
Decide first whether they have to come up at all — laying over a sound tiled floor is usually easier and cheaper. If they must go, work with a wide chisel or a breaker with a tile chisel, starting from a broken edge, with water suppression or on-tool extraction and an FFP3 mask. Expect to have to level the slab afterwards.
Removing a bonded tiled floor is one of the least pleasant jobs in a house: it is slow, extremely dusty, noisy, and it usually damages the surface beneath. That is why the first question is always whether it needs doing, and the honest answer is often no.
Safety
This job produces respirable crystalline silica dust from the tile, the adhesive and the screed, and that is a serious long-term lung hazard rather than a nuisance. Use water suppression or on-tool extraction, an FFP3 mask, eye protection and ear defenders, and keep the rest of the house sealed off. Flying tile fragments are sharp and fast. A breaker used on a thin screed or a heated floor can destroy the substrate or cut a heating pipe, so establish what is under the tiles first.
What you'll need
- an FFP3 mask, eye and ear protection
- a breaker or SDS drill with a tile chisel, hired
- a wide bolster and a lump hammer
- a means of dust suppression or extraction
- a long-handled floor scraper
- levelling compound and primer (optional)
Step by step
- Ask whether they need to come up.If the tiles are sound, flat and bonded, and the height increase is acceptable, laying over them is faster, cheaper, quieter and cleaner. Removal is justified by height constraints, by a failing substrate, or by tiles that are already loose.
- Find out what is under them.A thick concrete slab takes a breaker. A thin screed, an anhydrite screed, underfloor heating pipes or cables, or a bathroom tanking layer do not. Lift one tile at the edge of the room and look before committing to a machine.
- Check the age for asbestos.Modern ceramic tiles are not the concern; the adhesive under an older floor might be. If there is old black bitumen involved, stop and get it identified before generating dust.
- Set up dust control before you start.Seal the doorway with taped polythene, close and seal internal doors, and set up either water suppression or on-tool extraction. Silica dust is the reason this job needs proper equipment, and a nuisance dust mask is not adequate.
- Start at a broken or loose tile.You need an edge to get under. Break one tile deliberately if there is not already a loose one, and work outwards from there.
- Work with the chisel at a shallow angle.Keep the chisel low and drive it under the tile along the bed rather than down into the substrate. A steep angle digs into the screed and multiplies the making-good afterwards.
- Clear as you go.Broken tile underfoot makes the job dangerous and slow, and it damages the substrate when you kneel on it. Bag and clear every hour.
- Take the adhesive bed off separately.Once the tiles are off, a bed of hardened adhesive remains. A long-handled floor scraper takes off the bulk; the rest is levelled over rather than chased.
- Expect to level afterwards.The substrate after tile removal is rarely flat enough for a new floor. Budget for primer and levelling compound as part of the job rather than as a surprise at the end.
- Dispose of it properly.Broken tile and adhesive is heavy — far heavier than it looks. A skip or a series of trips with small, well-loaded bags. Do not overfill rubble sacks; they split and the contents are sharp.
Alternatives
- Lay a floating floor over the tiles: Fastest, cheapest and quietest by a wide margin, if the tiles are sound and the height increase works. There is a separate guide on the checks it needs.
- Level over the tiles: Prime for a non-absorbent surface and apply a levelling compound over the whole tiled floor, then lay a bonded covering on top. Adds less height than an overlay board and gives a continuous flat surface.
- Hire in a machine and an operator: Floor preparation contractors have ride-on and walk-behind strippers that remove a tiled floor in a fraction of the time with proper extraction. For a large area this is often cheaper than a week of hire and misery.
- Remove only where necessary: If the problem is a doorway height or an appliance recess, removing tiles in that area only and levelling into it can solve the problem without stripping the room.