I have a bunch of wall tiles that are no longer on the wall and need to be put back on that wall. That is the easy part.
They are typical 4″x4″ and when they were taken down the grout stayed on the tiles in some (actually many) areas. What is the best way to remove the adhered grout?
I started chipping and flicking and snapping it off and that works but it is very labor intensive. Would a rubbing stone work? I don’t want to go too crazy with an abrasive because the tiles are still good and I want to reuse them.
As an aside, I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart, it’s a church and I volunteered so there is no per hour rate to worry about.
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
Replies
Removing grout is like sawing concrete! I'm not sure how it could ever really be justified. Maybe you could use a bench grinder? Holding the tile in your hands and moving them back and forth on the grinder? Don't forget to wear a good dust mask.
Are the tile very special? I mean, 4 x 4 tiles are very basic and not that expensive.
Soak in water. Use a grinder I'd try 24 grit sandpaper before I'd move to the actual grinding wheel.Regards, Scooter"I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow." WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934
penny rich and pound poor
If it's wall tile likely it's a lime-based grout. A soak in a mild acid solution will soften it. Be sure to rinse well afterwards.
It is only part of the wall that is being reinstalled so I can't replace the tiles without replacing the whole wall.
As far as a mild acid - should I use vinegar? straight? diluted?
I may trya putty knife along the beveled edge of the tiles before the bench grinder since I don't want to scratch the glaze and after a long stint of grinding I see my mind wandering and mayhem ensuing.
Thanks.
straight distilled white vineagar...
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For generic white tile you can often match the color/size well enough, even if you can't get an exact match.Yeah, full strength white vinegar is probably about right.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
That would be way too easy. This is a sort of mottled beige, like you would find a public school built in the 50's or 60's.
The tiles are perfect, they just pulled away form the wall and I want to reset them and regrout and walk away. Don't know why they pulled away. No evidence of water, no impact, no vandalism. The wall seems to be fine - sound w/ no cracks or spalling. The tiles were in place for about 50 years and started to "bulge". The only thing holding them together was the grout. I thought it would take me a couple of hours to reinstall them since someone else removed them. I really just want to slap them back up and if they fail again I will have to dig deeper into the cause.
Thanks.
Heck, if the grout's intact why replace it? Just fit the pieces back where they came from, then give the thing a quick pass of grout to fill in the chipped areas.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
That was my original plan. When I tried it I had issues with the randomly adhered grout interfering with itself. What I mean is some of the tiles had grout stuck where the next tile's grout was so the grout line is twice as wide. Trying to pick tiles out of the box that fit in the "open" part of the grout line was like doing a jigsaw puzzle upside down - all the pieces look the same just the edges are different.
So I thought it might be easier to remove all of the grout from at least half of the tiles so I can use a tile with grout next to a "clean" tile and maintain my spacing. This is important since the tiles that fell off are in the middle of the field and the ends of the wall are still good so my grout lines need to match up or I will have to trim a tile in each row and I think that would look bad in the middle of the field.
Thanks.
Another option is to make it a "feature" -- replace the tile with contrasting tile in some sort of design.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
I would really really really try to find out why the wall bulged and the tiles became loose BEFORE I went to all the effort of removing grout, and I assume, thinset, and then resetting, grouting, sealing, etc and then see them fall off again.
How about a grout removal bit on a rotary tool? Or a carbide rasp on a MM?
If you try the vinegar, there is an "industrial" strength version. Good for weed killing. But I still don't know where to find it.