It is very hard to remove a tile backsplash and leave the wall looking nice. If it comes down easy, you may just need to do minor repair on the wall behind it. If it's difficult and the wall gets damaged, you may need to replace the drywall in the backsplash area. We had to do that. We just removed our old tile floor using mostly prybars. It actually wasn't all that hard. But again it will depend how well it was put down.

Is the subfloor wood, or concrete slab? Our tile on the slab was mostly a nightmare, but occasionally we would hit a tile that was not stuck so tightly....on the wood, scraping the stuff off once the tile is up can be a chore, but I was only a spectator on this process!

rocketmomkd:
Thanks for your response. My GC said that he would do any of the necessary repairs/patching to the walls - which sounds like that may be a good thing! Did you use a prybar on the walls as well as the floor?

springoz: I'm not sure but given that my house is very old and the rest of the house has hardwood floors, I'm guessing that the subfloor may be pine. Luckily my kitchen is small (100 sq ft) so at least it's not a large amount that I have to deal with (it will just seem like a lot!)

I removed some wallpaper over the weekend and that wasn't too bad, although there is still some adhesive on the walls so I still need to do some "clean up" work.

drywall is not expensive. Would you consider just tearing out the tile and the drywall in one big demo step, and redoing the drywall there? Might even be easier than patching.

Just an idea.

Oh, yes, it should not be that hard! I remember them putting the big prybar parallel to the floor and getting a sliding start from a couple of feet away, and it popped right up in chunks.

Hope yours comes up that easily!!

Nancy

You're unlikely to pop the tiles off the backsplash without ruining the drywall. But throwing up a few new sheets of drywall and finishing it over isn't a big deal, so don't try to be careful with the tile.

Floor tile can be a pain. We rented an electric chisel at HD and stirred up the dust. If it's installed correctly it's unlikely to just come up with a prybar. There will be residual thinset on the subfloor that has to be cleaned off.

Have fun, but wear goggles and a dust mask and be prepared to have sore muscles the next day. :-)

We removed our old backsplash tiles, and it made a mess of the drywall. We had to put something else up, as the drywall looked terrible as it was. We put new tile over the drywall, which was tricky, since it was damaged in places (my husband repaired a few areas). When we get rid of this new backsplash, we will definitely be taking out the tile AND drywall, and putting up new drywall. All the best on your project.

You should take a sledge hammer and break up the tile. This will help more thin set come up off the floor. If you use backer broad instead of dry wall for your back splash, the backer broad is mildew proof.

I always just take off the drywall when I take off wall tile and put new drywall up. Although if you are in a pre-1960 home you will find plaster not drywall. I still take it off and then shim the new drywall out to meet the old plaster thickness.

Floor tile - really depends on how long it has been down and therefore what it is attached to. Sometimes it is easiest just to take up the layer of flooring that it is attached to in an older home. My favorite "go to" tool for pulling up small amounts of floor tile is my air chisel. Google it, they are pretty inexpensive but you need an air compressor to run it. I, too, am a woman who likes to get her hand dirty!!

Thanks for all of the responses! I'm finishing up the removal of wallpaper this weekend, then I'll start the tile tear out. Your suggestions will help a lot!

We had that problem in our previous kitchen.

Be very careful when you remove the tile. If you are lucky you will not have many rips and gouges in the drywall. You can repair the gouges with drywall mud and then apply a coating of Gardz which will prevent the paint that you use to seep into the ripped portions of the drywall.

It will look nice and you can then take your time to decide on the backsplash.

We just took out a tile backsplash and counter a couple of weekends ago. The backsplash was only one course of 6x6 tile and no matter how careful we were, in most spots the drywall was destroyed. I emailed our tile guy in a panic and he said not to worry, it's very common. He also said the best way to remove the tile is to hit it with a hammer to create stress cracks and then use a 1 1/2 inch stiff putty knife and mallet at the top of the tile to separate it from the wall. We ended up patching the drywall in tons of places. When you take your tile out, don't forget to wear safety goggles (not just safety glasses, but full goggles), those shards can fly!

My son and I removed the original tile floor in this house. It wasn't down that solidly and when we cracked one tile with a hammer and started prying it up, much of the rest came out in strips. There is a tile removing tool we bought at Home Depot -- like a putty knife or scraper but heavier and made to be hit with a hammer or mallet on the end. Buy one of those and some leather gloves to protect your hands (heard of ceramic knives -- those shard are very sharp). Wear protective eye wear and clothing (not a time for tanks and short shorts)and consider knee pads or a cushion.

For the backsplash -- I'm with bee. The drywall will get damaged. If you only have holes, it's not that hard to fill, but the raised places around the holes and truff spots have to be sanded and levelled. It is easier, faster and possibly even cheaper to install new drywall that to go through that much fill, sanding and clean up -- especially if you are going to live with the results for any time at all. It's not going to look good, so if you want to paint and live with it for a while, bottom line -- new drywall.

Are you sure you don't have plaster? Not that it makes much of a difference. Just be gentle and then when it doesn't work, remember it's an easy repair.

And remember, whenever something is exposed add insulation if it's not already there. When I redid my old house kitchen, yeah, it looked better, but not having the Michigan winter creeping up along the pipes from the unheated garage below was the real improvement. (Probably didn't require a remodel to fix that haha)

Our BS tile was on backerboard attached to the drywall. It should have been easier than taking off tiles set onto the drywall, but it still made a lot of holes in the drywall. We're going to replace the drywall when we take the counters off.