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JIMMIE JIMMIE is offline
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Default Cleaning Ceramic tile for reuse

On Mar 8, 7:42*pm, (Charles Bishop) wrote:
In article , Ernie Willson

wrote:
First..let me thank everyone who responded to my earlier post about
matching the existing tile. Nothing has been found so I will have to
come up with a pattern in a contrasting style/color.


While taking the old tile up about 12 tiles were broken and need
replacement. To do this I had to take up about 27 tiles. This means that
about 15 tiles can be reused. These old tiles have grout on the edges
and mastic on the bottom side. The mastic appears to be some sort of
clear or light colored plastic.


To the maximum extent possible I intend to reuse the 15 existing tile.
What is the easiest way to remove the old grout and mastic without
damaging the reused tile?


I just did the same thing to repair some greenwall on a shower wall. The
backs of the tile had tile adhesive (brownish) rather than thinset, along
with some of the paper from the greenwall. There were bits of grout on the
edges of the tile. I soaked the tiles for a day or so, but this didn't
loosen the mastic, though the paper did come off easily, but this didn't
do much good. I was able to get the mastic off two ways: 1) scraping with
a 5 in 1 or putty knife while the tile was on a *hard surface with a cloth
protecting the glaze. Took some time, but was successful. 2) used a
grinder with a diamond blade on it. It caused dust, but I was outside. You
could also use a grinder wheel.

For the grout, using a narrow putty knife from the back edge worked for
most of it. Put the knife on the "lip" of the grout and a sharp blow with
the heel of my hand. Also was able to force bits of it off with just my
hand. Backup method was the diamond blade on the grinder, but this runs
the risk of damaging the edge of the tile, the bumps on the edge or the
glaze.

Took about an hour total, including clean up, for 27 tiles.

If the adhesive is thinset, then soaking the tiles for several days helps..
I ran mine through the diswasher, and cleaned up the bits that were on the
drain screen.

--
charles


Tile can take a lot of heat. I have cleaned them up with a torch. The
heat will cause grout and thinset to break down and burn mastic off
without hurting the tile.

Jimmie