Removing tiles from plasterboard wall

splashthecash · 17-09-2014 9:58pm #1

Hi all,

We are going to do up our jack and jill bathroom and planning on doing it myself. There are tiles on the wall from ground to halfway up the wall on all sides (within the shower obviously the tiles go all the way up). The walls on which these tiles are on, are all plasterboard and I am concerned that when I go to take them off, I'll break through the wall leaving the places in tatters.

Any advice on the best approach to doing this?

Thanks,

mfceiling · 17-09-2014 10:09pm

splashthecash wrote: »

Hi all,

We are going to do up our jack and jill bathroom and planning on doing it myself. There are tiles on the wall from ground to halfway up the wall on all sides (within the shower obviously the tiles go all the way up). The walls on which these tiles are on, are all plasterboard and I am concerned that when I go to take them off, I'll break through the wall leaving the places in tatters.

Any advice on the best approach to doing this?

Thanks,

Take the whole lot of, put on new plasterboard and then re-tile. Much cleaner job and will make tiling a lot easier.

splashthecash · 17-09-2014 10:17pm

mfceiling wrote: »

Take the whole lot of, put on new plasterboard and then re-tile. Much cleaner job and will make tiling a lot easier.

Good suggestion, and I presume the fact that I am not a plasterer doesn't come into it because the plastering job I'd be doing on the new board wouldn't need to be perfect because I'd be applying tile adhesive over it anyway. Or would I even need to plaster over the plasterboard at all before putting on the adhesive?

dodzy · 18-09-2014 1:43am

splashthecash wrote: »

Good suggestion, and I presume the fact that I am not a plasterer doesn't come into it because the plastering job I'd be doing on the new board wouldn't need to be perfect because I'd be applying tile adhesive over it anyway. Or would I even need to plaster over the plasterboard at all before putting on the adhesive?

No plaster needed. Just re-board and tile away. It is a perfect surface for tiling on with no pre-treatment.

splashthecash · 18-09-2014 9:10am

dodzy wrote: »

No plaster needed. Just re-board and tile away. It is a perfect surface for tiling on with no pre-treatment.

Perfect, I'll do that so....thanks

Jimmy_M · 18-09-2014 10:37am

On the other hand....The tiles may come off easey and bring the grout with them leaving a near perfect surface - just be gentle taking them off in case.
Then this will save you the job of reslabbing the wall. If you're not used to doing this it could take a couple of days extra.

I did same not so long ago on a house i bought. There were sections of the tiles that came off easy - others that left grout behing, others that the plasterboard underneath came away or was rotten. I just filled in new plasterboard where i needed it. The tiling turned out fine and i dont think it took me any longer.

stoneill · 19-09-2014 3:16pm

Make sure you get a decent tanking kit and waterproof the plasterboards first!

dodzy · 19-09-2014 11:20pm

Jimmy_M wrote: »

On the other hand....The tiles may come off easey and bring the grout with them leaving a near perfect surface - just be gentle taking them off in case.
Then this will save you the job of reslabbing the wall. If you're not used to doing this it could take a couple of days extra.

I did same not so long ago on a house i bought. There were sections of the tiles that came off easy - others that left grout behing, others that the plasterboard underneath came away or was rotten. I just filled in new plasterboard where i needed it. The tiling turned out fine and i dont think it took me any longer.

I can guarantee you one thing. If the tiles within a shower enclosure come off clean with no damage to board, then 1 of 2 things have happened.....

1. The shower was never used or....
2. The shower was never used

karltimber · 20-09-2014 12:01am

or get green plasterboard - waterproof - well moisture proof.

don't use normal plasterboard.

K

Jimmy_M · 22-09-2014 9:25am

dodzy wrote: »

I can guarantee you one thing. If the tiles within a shower enclosure come off clean with no damage to board, then 1 of 2 things have happened.....

1. The shower was never used or....
2. The shower was never used

Haha true enough - thats where i had to do most of my patching up.

splashthecash · 22-09-2014 1:37pm

So I started this over the weekend and did the following

- Took off shower door
- Took up shower base (which was enamel and cracked) and forgot about the plumbing connecting to the waster water

....broke that but that should be easy enough to fix
- Started taking up floor tiles and wall tiles.

The adhesive is remaining on the floor\wall which I feel is going to be a right pain in the @ss to get off...I was trying to take off the wall tiles without damaging the plasterboard too much and in one area broke through by accident. The floor tiles are coming up easily enough but as mentioned, the adhesive is staying (it is a second floor en suite in a timber frame house).

Any recommendations on how to attack the remaining adhesive? Is it just a matter of elbow grease chiseling it off I presume?

dodzy · 22-09-2014 2:51pm

splashthecash wrote: »

Any recommendations on how to attack the remaining adhesive? Is it just a matter of elbow grease chiseling it off I presume?

What is the flooring surface ? Marine ply ?

splashthecash · 22-09-2014 3:53pm

I am attaching two photos - one of the area where the shower base was (I'm not sure what type of wood the floor was used but it looks like chipboard?) and the other is of the wall where I have removed tiles.

dodzy · 23-09-2014 7:56am

splashthecash wrote: »

I am attaching two photos - one of the area where the shower base was (I'm not sure what type of wood the floor was used but it looks like chipboard?) and the other is of the wall where I have removed tiles.

Plasterboard-rip it all off and reslab.
Flooring-elbow grease, and sacrifice a wood chisel. It'll rip through that adhesive. I hate CB. If the door would allow it, I'd lay down a sheet of 10mm marine ply over existing flooring.

slave1 · 01-10-2014 8:34pm

Ha, this is the very job I've been carrying out the last two weeks, my shower room was tiled floor to ceiling with marine ply on the floor. Totally gutted the room, all tiles and plasterboard gone from wall exposing the stud walls. Floor tiles and marine ply removed exposing original floorboards.
Some ideas, I will be 'sinking' a tall unit into a section of stud wall to gain some storage space (7cm deep), will also recess a simple small section for toilet rolls. Putting in 70mm acoustic insulation in the stud walls to reduce the sound of the electric shower, putting 50mm insulated slab on external wall and am also moving the electric shower to this solid wall to reduce noise (the insulated slab will take the pipe work). Putting new slab over old one on the ceiling and putting in 4 LED spots (1.2watts) to improve light and reduce running costs. Hanging wash basin to improve space and installing a short projection loo, again a space decision. Putting in a smaller more efficient radiator too. Great fun in this weather breaking sweat!!!
PS run the marine ply in the opposite direction to the floorboards and if you're getting a new shower get a base with upstands.
Good luck with your project.

splashthecash · 08-10-2014 10:59am

Hi all,

I still at this, don't get much time so it'll probably drag out a while....anyway, I have all the floor tiles up and and all the wall tiles off. I think I may be able to get away with just replacing the plasterboard in the area where the shower was as this was particularly hard to get wall tiles off of.

So at the moment I am cutting the down the plasterboard at the point where the shower enclosure ended.

Three questions.

1) Is this okay to do or should it be all or nothing in terms of new plasterboard?
2) Assuming it is okay, what would I fill the gaps with between the existing wall and the new plasterboard? I ask because I would be worried about making the cut plasterboard damp because I will have cut that and the chalk bit will be exposed. If simple filler or mixed up plaster is fine and wouldn't introduce moisture\damp then happy days. Or perhaps I just leave it unfilled and be sure not to lay any tile adhesive around that particular gap?
3) Because I will be leaving the existing wall and putting new plasterboard beside it, there is going to be a small difference in depth because the existing wall would have been plastered and rather than plastering the new plasterboard I am just planning on putting a bit extra tile adhesive on the new plasterboard to make up for this difference. Does this make sense and is it the best way to go?

*Note, I will be tanking the new plasterboard before tiling over it.

Removing tiles from plasterboard wall

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