I would like to remove my kitchen tiles with a view to painting over
most of the area and only tiling a smaller area. I think the area
behind the tiles are plasterboard.

I would be grateful for advice on how difficult it would be to do this
job. I probably wouldn't do it myself but how much labour/materials
would be required to do this? The kitchen base and wall units would be
getting replaced at the same time.

AmyGG wrote:
I would like to remove my kitchen tiles with a view to painting over
most of the area and only tiling a smaller area. I think the area
behind the tiles are plasterboard.

I would be grateful for advice on how difficult it would be to do this
job. I probably wouldn't do it myself but how much labour/materials
would be required to do this? The kitchen base and wall units would be
getting replaced at the same time.

Tricky. You will probably take patches of skim from the plasterboards
and therefore the new paint will be blotchy unless you are very careful
removing them.
Sometimes tiles are very lightly put on and they may just come away
easily in which case you can sand the wall after they are removed but
its unlikely.
When tilers put up tiles they dont put them up to come down easily.
As for time about an hour or two to take them down with a bolster and
hammer to do it gently prising the tiles without digging at the slab.
With luck they could come down in ten minutes if lightly put up.
If the wall is rough after you remove them, it may be best to retile it
in your new colours to get a good finish.

wrote:
AmyGG wrote:
I would like to remove my kitchen tiles with a view to painting over
most of the area and only tiling a smaller area. I think the area
behind the tiles are plasterboard.

I would be grateful for advice on how difficult it would be to do this
job. I probably wouldn't do it myself but how much labour/materials
would be required to do this? The kitchen base and wall units would be
getting replaced at the same time.

Tricky. You will probably take patches of skim from the plasterboards
and therefore the new paint will be blotchy unless you are very careful
removing them.
Sometimes tiles are very lightly put on and they may just come away
easily in which case you can sand the wall after they are removed but
its unlikely.
When tilers put up tiles they dont put them up to come down easily.
As for time about an hour or two to take them down with a bolster and
hammer to do it gently prising the tiles without digging at the slab.
With luck they could come down in ten minutes if lightly put up.
If the wall is rough after you remove them, it may be best to retile it
in your new colours to get a good finish.



If this is what tyiou really DO wantto do, they come off in s few
minutes with a bolter and ckub hammer, and some of teh wall will come
with them. So it will absolutely need a re-skim.

Don;t let anyone tell you that by taking 25 hours per tile they can get
them off without damaging the surface. Trust someone who says '5 minutes
to get em down, but a days worth of skimming and making good before its
suitable to paint'.

On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 12:41:38 -0700, AmyGG wrote:

I would like to remove my kitchen tiles with a view to painting over
most of the area and only tiling a smaller area. I think the area
behind the tiles are plasterboard.

I would be grateful for advice on how difficult it would be to do this
job. I probably wouldn't do it myself but how much labour/materials
would be required to do this? The kitchen base and wall units would be
getting replaced at the same time.

Have recently (last Sunday) done this in my bathroom. Took most of the
morning for 2 walls and a windows sill. Using cold chiesel and hammer they
actually came off better than I was expecting. Some making up to do with
plaster skim on the plasterboard walls. But it all wnet ok. As the other
poster says do it gently, but firmly!!

Dave

"AmyGG" wrote in message
ups.com...
I would like to remove my kitchen tiles with a view to painting over
most of the area and only tiling a smaller area. I think the area
behind the tiles are plasterboard.

I would be grateful for advice on how difficult it would be to do this
job. I probably wouldn't do it myself but how much labour/materials
would be required to do this? The kitchen base and wall units would be
getting replaced at the same time.


It's almost infinitely variable.
It depends on the material behind, and on the adhesive used, and the quality
of the original workmanship.

Plywood behind usually stands up to tile removal better than plasterboard.

If it's plasterboard, then you have a full range of possibilities from them
more or less falling off, through minor ripping of the plasterboard surface
through to total demolition of the plasterboard.

I've had a couple of the total demolition cases here recently.

Be prepared for worst case of having to cut out some damaged plasterboard
sections, replace, tape and skim. If you're lucky, it may not come to
that.

--
Ron