I would say yes, it will be a nightmare that you might not wake up from.....

I've had tile that would pull up with a light tap with a hammer, I had one house where we had to remove the subfloor it was so well attached. You just don't know until you start removing the first few tiles.

I just had tile removed from a large kitchen, dining room and foyer. Like you, I anticipated a big mess. However, the flooring contractor we hired made the entire process fairly easy. He covered all the openings with walls of thin plastic sheeting and they made sure they cleaned everything. It took two days, during which he also ran a large HEPA filter (stayed on at night). Yes, it was a mess, but thanks to the contractor it stayed confined to the areas where the tile removal was done. Overall, I would say it was worth it because I now have beautiful wood floors!

If you use a professional team of guys for the demo and they use the compressor chisel tool for taking it up, and hauling the heavy load out of your home it might come up easily. If you try to do it yourself by hand you're likely to be discouraged.

I'm planning to use a professional. However, when he came to measure for the bid, he said it may damage dry wall and base boards. Should I have someone else take a look?

We removed tile from our foyer with a Jack hammer we rented from home depot. It was a good amount of work but worth it. They should remove the baseboards beforehand

Yes, you should get one or two more contractors to look at it. Ask them what method they will use to remove the tile and the approach they will take to protect the rest of the house from damage.

There are ways of protecting sheetrock without much effort, and since you would be putting in a new floor the baseboards would have to be removed anyway (and, if it's done carefully, they could be reused).

Yes, talk to someone else. In my experience with contractors, that’s the kind of excuse they give when it’s something they don’t really want to do (a.k.a. too much work). Go to a local flooring store & get someone who exclusively installs floors for a living to take a look. I replaced almost an entire house worth of flooring, which included ripping out tile in two areas. One was a small bathroom. No one even mentioned the possibility of drywall being destroyed, not even in those tight quarters. They warned more about the walls getting dinged up during carpet installation.

Yeah I didn't cause drywall damage but drywall is like $10 for a 4x8 sheet if they mess it up can't they repair it...

I posted above, and would like to add that the contractor removed the baseboards and reinstalled them beautifully. There was no damage to the drywall. Maybe you should get other estimates and have them explain to you how they will do the work.

Good luck!

Oh good heavens. I removed my own bathroom floor with a masonry blade on a Skilsaw and a crowbar. If I'd known I could rent a jackhammer, I'd have done that, but this is not that big a deal. Remove the baseboards before you start, and don't worry about the drywall. Drywall damage is simple to fix. Just do it.

My wife shoveled our tile kitchen floor into a wheelbarrow in less time than it took me to remove two properly repaired tile in the bathroom. She used a shovel; I used an electric chipping hammer.

The kitchen concrete was polished; the bathroom had to be retiled because of the damage I did removing the tiles.

You never know what you're getting with demolition.

Definitely not worth it. Pay someone. My husband just did a hallway and bath and it took forever and was a huge mess. Easier just to have someone do it and be done.

If it's actually on top of hardwood, you can probably just jump on it a bit and scoop it up with a shovel. If it's properly installed it might be a nightmare. Your baseboards shouldn't be anywhere near the removal.

If you want to know what the tile is installed on simply look under the vent grates below the windows. I'm sure the contractor that gave you a price did this. Correct? If not move on to the next contractor.

what's the big deal w/the baseboards? remove them first. when you put down the new flooring, it looks better to have the baseboards placed on top of the flooring then leaving them in place and doing 1/4 round molding. Take them up! if you do it carefully, and mark their placement, you can reuse them.

drywall isn't a big deal to patch. if they're worried about doing that much damage, I'd find another company. this isn't brain surgery.

Whats the floor under the hardwood? Is it cement?

Nothing is impossible, messy and expensive yes impossible no.

It's a messy and labor intensive job but it can be done. The tiles will be the easiest part to take up, it's the thinset on the concrete that is a killer. If the tile was laid on hardwood then it should still be messy but a lot easier.

I had to have it done years ago at a rental property...a prior owner had built an addition and then as it was settling cracks started to spread all over the floor in that one large room. The tile person removed it all with a jackhammer and replaced with new tile, and took some precautions so the cracks didn't start again. I don't remember any damage to the drywall, and I would have noticed because I painted the room after it was done.

The floor beneath is a sub-floor, I suppose. It has a basement beneath.

So its probably plywood nailed on the joints. Thats gonna be a big demo. Hopefully the new hardwood will be level with the existing hardwood?

Where is this located?

My husband did not enjoy removing tile from the bathroom in our last house. We did not have hardwoods under the tile, concrete slab, but it was a royal pain to remove. He had to use different tools to get all the glue removed so that when he laid the new tile down, it would look beautiful.

Hire a Pro. They have several resources not available to homeowners.

https://youtu.be/avDQCc6dvpI

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/homeowners-guide-to-hiring-qualified-tile-installer

If you don't like the floor then get a carpet to cover it , perhaps the next owner will like it , I like it for the simple reason that its easy to keep clean . You could also get a rug that will just cover a good portion of it leaving the sides exposed . To break it up is possible but this is a can of worm that I wouldn't open if I were you .

There is a company that I know of that can remove up to 1800 sqft in a day here in Florida. I think they have a network of installers who use their fast tile removal methods nationwide.

Not just Florida. It's becoming a specialization as installers are too busy to mess with the boring stuff. Not only that, any type of demolition from the builder level is a pain to deal with so new services have popped up.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=ceramic+tile+removal+companies&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&ghc=1&pq=ceramic+tile+removal+companies&sc=4-30&sk=&cvid=6B80B9B7C1904680A943AE3A2FC4EFA8

What did you finally do? Would love to see "after" pics.