Is it on a sub-floor or cement slab? It should be less expensive if its on a subfloor, but tile installation is not cheap regardless of whether or not you have a removal issue. I got a price of about $15,000 to lay 850 sq ft in my Kitchen, FR and eating area, but there are "issues" with my floor in addition to the tear out.

That said, I have the old 8x8, with 2 different colors of tile + hardwood in the areas to be redone. It was definitely worth it for me to get rid of the ugly old stuff. Otherwise, it just didn't make sense spending all that money on a new kitchen.

We had our tile taken out a few months ago. The expense is not the problem. The massive amount of dust that enters every pore of your home is. I would suggest that no matter what your contractor says- COVER EVERY doorway and any thing that has a door or hangs from the ceiling. Our guys said they would cover everything and that did not happen. I wished I had done it myself as I would have been much more careful. Any stairway acts like a chimney during the process so be sure to cover that area. Seal all the way around each doorway with tape - all 4 sides. Dust will still get through but nothing will be ruined if you are aware and diligent

I disagree with numbersjunkie - it is more expensive to remove tile from a subfloor. My daughter had old tile removed from a slab concrete floor - it cost her about $1.50/foot. Mine will be about $2.50/foot to remove from a subfloor, as soon as I can find a tile to replace it with! I have almost 700 sq. feet of tile to remove, and yes, I'm expecting a huge mess!

Helene

That surprises me. my tile guy said they just pull the old subfloor up and replace it. But I have yet to even get someone to remove the tile from my slab. They all say its a really hard job and suggested I just tile over whats there.

Maybe it has something to do with the part of the country. Here in MD they are all used to dealing with subfloor installations, and hardly ever anything on a slab. Go figure!

Numbersjunkie,

On the slab floor all they need to do is use a flat shovel and remove the old tiles - they generally pop off with a little persuasion. They might need to use a jackhammer type tool too, but it's fast and 'relatively' easy.

With a wood subfloor, they need to break up the tile, break up the mud job and the mesh (if it's an older floor like mine) or, if it's newer and done on hardibacker board - they need to remove the tile, and then they need to break up the hardbacker and remove the screws which attach the hardibacker to the subfloor. If they remove the subfloor it would be an extra expense. Everyone moans and groans about how hard it is to do. I've also been told to get an estimate from a demo company instead of the tiling co...it's supposed to be much cheaper. I'm in NJ and it's hard to get anyone to work here...I think they're all swamped with more than enough work - even with the recession.

Helene

I never removed floor tile-altho the guys who demo'ed our two baths did- but I did remove 80's mosaic backsplash tile from ds and dil's house around the corner. Months long. Painstaking. Awful Which is another reason why I am painting my new backsplash! Ok, the main reason.

I just don't get pretty tile backsplashes which can fall out of favor quickly. Perhaps I'd get bored more easily than others. But it's probably just a matter of time. Five, ten, twelve years.

The removal of the tile in our old baths was slightly better than a manslaughter conviction. But I paid to have it done-Actually they did it in a couple of days, including old cast iron tubs. Ok, you want me to say it was a piece of cake? Yeah, it was a piece of cake. NOt.

You like your gray tile. Just not the size. With new baseboards and other changes, it could be very nice. Unless hgtv is coming in to do the changes, think very hard about the cost and the benefits. May not really be necessary. 2 cents or less. but you asked!

Okay, I've actually done both myself. I'd say "it all depends" is the answer.

- Tile on Slab: I removed two bathrooms worth of tile in our fairly new house. The builder used substandard materials and the tile de-laminated within the 2nd year of the house. No it was not covered by the warranty. I used a demolition hammmer to break up the tile off the floor. I duct-taped my shop vac hose to the shaft of the 'bit' and used a concrete dust bag in the shop vac to keep the dust down. I think this worked pretty well but still had some clean up. But this leaves a rough surface of thinset. So the next step is a 4.5" angle grinder with a diamond cup wheel and a dust collecting housing. Again connected to the shop-vac. It works REALLY well. The thinset is litterally just vacummed up off the floor. Still it was a lot of hard work but left the slab as clean as the day it was poured. I could even see the builders marking on the slab of where to put junction boxes, vents etc.
- Tile on concrete backer board. It depends on how well the backerboard is attached, but a pry bar under the backerboard (which was nailed not screwed) removed the tile in minutes with no dust. If it were screwed I might have been screwed too. ;-)
- Tile backsplash in Kitchen. I just got through removing the builders idea of a custom backsplash... the same tile as the floor tile. This was placed over dry wall and there is no way you are going to remove tile off dry wall. The dry wall will be ruined. So I took a multi-tool and cut along the top and bottom of the backsplash (between the countertop and upper cabinet) and then used my demo hammer to break up the backsplash which came out pretty easily. So the only thing left was the studs. After some wiring work I just replaced the drywall. Again I ran the shop vac right next to the tool which really cut down on the dust. But not dust free.

A pro would use other, larger tools. Maybe air powered tools. Maybe walk-behind tools. These might generate a lot more dust. I was used a floor machine with a sand paper disk to prep a slab and it was a dust nightmare. Luckily that house was empty at the time. If you are going to do this yourself you can control the dust reasonably well. Use a bag in your shop-vac rated for concrete dust and run the shop vac as close to the tool as you can at all times.

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It sounds like people have had a variety of experiences with tile removal. We had to pop some tiles from our slabs years ago to treat for termites, and they were very difficult to get up. The tile guy we have now said they were laid very well and are not coming up easily. He said usually with jobs that old, there are at least some loose tiles.

I guess it all depends on how the subfloor or tile was put down. We did have some slate on concrete backer board that we have yet to get up because the backer board was glued on top of the hardwood floor which was underneath. The concrete board had to broken up with a mallet and there is still parts we can't get up. Needless to say, the hardwood underneath is ruined.

We had our tile taken out a few months ago. The expense is not the problem. The massive amount of dust that enters every pore of your home is. I would suggest that no matter what your contractor says- COVER EVERY doorway and any thing that has a door or hangs from the ceiling. Our guys said they would cover everything and that did not happen. I wished I had done it myself as I would have been much more careful. Any stairway acts like a chimney during the process so be sure to cover that area. Seal all the way around each doorway with tape - all 4 sides. Dust will still get through but nothing will be ruined if you are aware and diligent

Thanks all for your honesty. Sounds like my assumptions were correct!! We are also redoing our master bath at the same time. There is tile there also - white 9x9 with white grout (What was I thinking??????) Anyway, that has got to be replaced as we're getting rid of the whirlpool tub. It should give me a good idea of how bad it would be downstairs.

We just moved into a 100 year old farmhouse. The previous owners had tiled all three bedrooms, hallway, kitchen, laundry room, foyer, family room and two bathrooms. I hired a couple of high school kids and it went quickly. (they were excellent workers - it only took a couple of days and cost me about $200) It was all mortared on to a cement board sub floor that was screwed to the original floor. We used garden spades and basically pried it all up. It wasn't really bad - just hard work. It was messy, but we hadn't moved in yet... It all depends on what you've got under that tile - but if it's installed properly on to a sub floor, it's nothing to be afraid of...

We removed 220 sqft - thinset on subfloor. Rented a demolition hammer (go hilti!) and the big rectangular oscillating sander with 36 grit paper.

It was fast and truly awful, backbreaking work. Mostly the demolition hammer weighs a ton and we needed to hold it at an angle to pop the tile and the majority of the grout.

We took the thinset off using the sander - worked great - no stress and very quick.

As stated above, mask everything.

If it is thinset on concrete a tool like this works well.

If you already have an angle grinder you can buy a dust extraction cover and a diamond cup wheel and make your own. This is what I did. It connects to a shop vac and keeps the dust down. The dust created and very fine and gets air borne easily and find every nook and cranny you never knew existed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bosch Concrete Grinder

After reading everyone's comments I think I gaining a new appreciation for the 9x9 grays!! HA!

Someone did mention tiling over the existing tile - is this possible? It might be the easiest alternative if I decide to go for it.