Before you start work, if you are removing wall tiles above, around or near sinks, baths, worktops etc, protect these surfaces with several layers of dust sheets, old towels or whatever you have available to avoid the surfaces being scratched.
If you are removing wall tiles from above, as an example a bath, extra protection may be needed as a wall tile dropping from height may do a great deal of impact damage on whatever surface it lands on.
Start by lining up the edge of the bolster chisel with the tile grout line, angle the bolster chisel as close to the wall as possible and strike the chisel with your hammer (the first tile is usually the hardest to remove), you will soon get a ‘feel’ for how hard you need to hit the chisel in order to remove the tile.
Safety tip :- Do not attempt to remove wall tiles without safety goggles (not safety specs) and protective gloves, fragments of the tiles being removed will shoot off in every direction and they can have extremely sharp edges.
When you have removed several wall tiles the others should hopefully start to chisel away much easier, this does depend on the original adhesive used to hold the wall tiles in place, if the adhesive is standard tile adhesive, the wall tiles should come away fairly easily, the adhesive can then be removed from the wall using a strong paint scraper or wallpaper scraper, if the wall tiles are stuck in place on a cement render or adhesive then it would be a good idea to let your friends and family know you may be busy for a while.
If the cement adhesive is on a solid brick or block wall you can remove it using a bolster chisel and hammer/lump hammer but this will take some time, if the cement adhesive is on a partition wall , then removing the cement may damage the partition wall surface so much that it may need to be re-boarded with an appropriate board such as Aquapanel. I had this problem at home and after attempting to remove several wall tiles and cement adhesive I decided it would be far easier to tile over the original tiles on this particular section of wall.
Tools required :- Bolster chisel, preferably with a hand guard, 16 oz hammer or small lump hammer, paint scraper, old towels or dust sheets, hand brush and scoop, safety goggles and protective gloves.
