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View Full Version : If you don't think thinset will securely hold tiles to a wall...



Ken Fitzgerald
06-30-2009, 12:20 AM
you are certainly welcome to come prove your theory in our main floor bathroom!

Whew! I just spent 3 hours and probably have 20% of the tile removed! I will be retiling it after replacing the bathtub. I will use thinset when I retile it.

Eric Larsen
06-30-2009, 12:26 AM
There are three variables:

1) The quality of the thinset.

2) The installer's skill.

3) The quality of the tile (this is a distant third).


If it's done right, you can drive a semi-truck over the tile. If not, any little thing will cause cracks.

Ken Fitzgerald
06-30-2009, 12:32 AM
Eric,

This was my first tub surround/shower tile job some 18-20 years ago. I had never used thinset before but I must have got it right!

I've since used a lot of thinset on a couple of showers and several floors.

The sad part is all of the tile needs to come off so I can get the tub out.

curtis rosche
06-30-2009, 9:54 AM
get a bigger hammer, or since fourth of july is coming up, get some fireworks and blast them off

Jim Becker
06-30-2009, 10:08 AM
Your real problem is that you're expecting to keep the wall behind the tile intact. LOL :D

Steve Schlumpf
06-30-2009, 10:24 AM
Your real problem is that you're expecting to keep the wall behind the tile intact. LOL :D

Exactly!!! Always hate the patch work!

Best of luck with the removal work Ken! Take plenty of breaks and watch your back! Gosh, sound like Mr. Mom!

Eric Larsen
06-30-2009, 10:30 AM
Eric,

This was my first tub surround/shower tile job some 18-20 years ago. I had never used thinset before but I must have got it right!

I've since used a lot of thinset on a couple of showers and several floors.

The sad part is all of the tile needs to come off so I can get the tub out.

When you're retiling, look for the new thinset that's polymer based. It's a joy to work with, and will end up being stronger than the floor you're installing it on. At ~$15/bag, it's not cheap. But it won't take more than a couple bags to do an average-sized bathroom. Also, I like big tile (running diagonally) in small rooms -- makes the room look much bigger.


As for removal, what's the thinset sitting on? Ply? Hardiboard? Concrete? If it's cement board, it's often easier to get a tool under that and work from there.

Hey, I don't think I ever posted pix of our tile handiwork. (LOML set all the tile. I was the "cut man" on this project.)


http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/8427/dsc3059u.jpg

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/8074/dsc3060r.jpg

Peter Stahl
06-30-2009, 4:52 PM
Eric, Looks good! What did you do for the shower? Did you have glass walls installed? Any pics of that.

Peter Stahl
06-30-2009, 4:54 PM
Ken, I'd use a big hammer and crowbar and remove everything. After that long I'd want to see if any mold was living there. You may also want to add blocking for hand bars too.

curtis rosche
06-30-2009, 5:20 PM
if you arent trying to save the tiles, you could just take a cold chisel (sharpened first) and hit it dead center of the tile. at the pool i used to work at there was really old tile in the bathrooms, we took half of it off. it worked pretty well because the tile we had had a ridge around the square, so the main contact point to the wall was the edges

Eric Larsen
06-30-2009, 5:44 PM
Eric, Looks good! What did you do for the shower? Did you have glass walls installed? Any pics of that.


Yeah, we had a glass enclosure made. It was cheaper to get someone from the local shower door company to do it as a side job than to order materials and do it myself.

I love it when that happens. It was the same for our patio cover. Having the whole thing done for us was less than half the best price we could find on just the materials.