My foyer floor 12″x12″ marble tiles on cement backer board. The cement board appears to have thinset underneath and is screwed to the subfloor every 8 inches or so. I need to remove all of this down to the subfloor so I can install hardwood.
What’s the easiest way to remove this? Hacking at it for an hour with a crowbar and hammer got me almost nowhere except breaking out a couple of inches along one edge and a lot of dust!
Replies
It should be relatively easy to pop the tile off with a cold chisel and hammer. I would not try to salvage the subfloor - use a circular saw with a blade that will cut nails, etc and set the depth of cut so you don't cut into the joists. Any way you look at it it's going to be a lot work.
The best tool I've ever used for this is a rotary hammer, set to hammer. They can be rented. Be careful - the chisel bit gets hot from use. I can show you the scar <G>. This is way, way easier than any hammer and chisel approach. Use hearing protection, safety glasses, and a dust mask.
Andy
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demo hammer and a wide chisel..
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yes, a demo hammer will do it... much better than a rotary hammer.
I have a nice Milwaukee that only runs about $1100.00
Although you can rent one for about $60 per day. I think Home Depot rents Hilti brand.
You may want to try the wide chisel but you might be better off with the narrow chisel too...about 1.25" wide
trick is to take it apart in small pieces... sometimes you can get underneath and cause tiles to pop, other times come straight down from above, nibbling off a little at a time.
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I recently took up about 400 sq. ft. of 12" porcelain tile laid over about 1" of mud and wire mesh. Took it all up down to the subfloor. Used a circular saw with a diamond blade to score the floor into 2' x 2' sections. Yes, the sawing was extremely loud (ear protection a must) and extremely dusty (shop vac down at the blade plus good mask), but it made pretty quick work of a really ugly job. Took two guys (me and a buddy) about 4 hours (and two diamond blades).