Removing old tile counters without damaging backsplash tiles

13 years ago

I just got a quote for a soapstone install. They charge additional for the removal of our old counters (that's fine with me), but they also say they are not liable if any of the wall tiles break.

We plan to leave the wall tiles in because they are still exactly what we want. What is the likelihood that some tiles will be damaged or broken? What was your experience with this? I may possibly have a couple extra wall tiles we could use if a couple break but am not even sure on that.

I am just worried that this entire thing may snowball on us and mean that we will also then have to rip out all of our wall tiles and start anew (something we do not want to do). Thank.

Featured Answer

hags00

13 years ago

Protect your wall tiles with cardboard and take a hammer to the row of counter top tiles that are against the wall. Break them up good. Wearing gloves and using putty knives and screwdrives pull out all the little pieces of tile from that row closest to the wall. Wiggle them out from under the backsplash tile, they should come out fairly easily.

This clears a distance the thickness of the tile for the counter to pivot up upon removal before it contacts and loads your backsplash tiles. If that proves to not be enough set the depth right on a circular saw or rotozip and zip through the cement board and pry that off too.

It will take more finesse then normally is used when demoing kitchens but with a little caution, it should be very doable.

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Comments (11)

cookncarpenter
13 years ago
Your chances of not damaging some splash tiles are not too good. Typically the splash would be set after the counter, which means the counter tiles go under the splash. If your tile was mud set, and metal lath was used, chances of damage are even greater because the lath may wrap up the wall and essentially make the splash and counter one continuos member.
julieste
Original Author
13 years ago
Our countertops are cement board on top of a plywood base with the tile laid on top of that. Then, the wall tiles were done last. So, I should anticipate there is going to be a major likelihood of having to replace all of the blacksplash throughout my entire kitchen too?
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debrak_2008
13 years ago
Not sure this helps....a friend recently removed a laminate counter that had the 4" laminate backplash with tiles above it. It came out smoothly with no damage to the tile.

Can you try it yourself in one spot just to see how it goes?
angie_diy
13 years ago
No guarantees, of course, but I think you will likely be able to get the countertops out, but will ruin many of the tiles in the BOTTOM ROW of your backsplash. I wager you will be able to keep most of the ones above that row.

This does not strike me as a tragedy, because your new countertop is unlikely to be the same thickness as the one you are removing. We had a recent thread concerning just this situation: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0116332931532.html.

I would think about just planning to do a cute border between your new countertop and the rest of the BS.
cookncarpenter
13 years ago
...what Angie said, since your tile is on cement board, you should only possibly lose or damage some of the bottom row tiles. If this happens, one option is to take a Soapstone splash up as high as one course of tile and have the remaining tile splash sit on top of the thicker soapstone...
julieste
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for all of your help and suggestions. I guess I hadn't thought about the possibility of doing a splash from the counter material and running it up to the tiles. I guess we won't know until we try, and I will have to prepare for all eventualities.
snoonyb
13 years ago
Piece of cake.
There should not be any damage to the backsplash, the contractors just covering his ass.
julieste
Original Author
13 years ago
snoonyb--

I hope you are right and this is just a CYA move.
User
13 years ago
This is a case of if you really care about not damaging the tile, it's a DIY job. No one will care about your tile like you do. The typical demolition of tile counters doesn't involve being too careful about trying to save anything but the cabinets. You'll have enough issues with that. I recommend removing the doors and drawer fronts during the demo. Yes, that means removing all of the cabinet contents, but that's a GOOD thing! Everyone needs to go through their kitchen stuff and purge the unused items every so often.
julieste
Original Author
13 years ago
hags & live wire--

Yes, I think more and more we are coming to realize that we will probably end up doing the demo ourselves. Thank you for some excellent ideas in how to approach this project. It is a good thing we consider ourselves pretty handy and have done many projects before. In fact, I am the one who installed all the backsplash tiles. I guess I had never even thought about the need to take everything out of the cabinets, but it was a promise to myself that I was going to go through and reorganize everything in the cupboards as a part of this project. Guess I just didn't realize that I should be typing it in to the counter renovagtion.