Removal of tile adhesive
 

Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles. He's taken the tiles off the bathroom wall,
and wants to reuse them. He's updating the bathroom so thankfully it's only
about 40 tiles. Any ideas what's the quickest solution to this dreaded task?
I would be grateful for your advise

Jen

Unless it's special tile adhesive designed for constant submersion just
leave the tiles in a bucket of water for a few days and it should then
just rub off with a cloth. You will have to let the tiles dry before
reusing them though or they won't stick properly.

If that doesn't work you could try a surform or some thing like that but
you would need to be careful that you don't chip the edges of the tile.

Graham

Jen wrote:
Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles. He's taken the tiles off the bathroom wall,
and wants to reuse them. He's updating the bathroom so thankfully it's only
about 40 tiles. Any ideas what's the quickest solution to this dreaded task?
I would be grateful for your advise

Jen

Vera wrote:
On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 18:13:51 -0000, "Jen" wrote:


Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive

from the back of ceramic tiles. He's taken the tiles off the bathroom wall,

and wants to reuse them. He's updating the bathroom so thankfully it's only
about 40 tiles. Any ideas what's the quickest solution to this dreaded task?
I would be grateful for your advise




If it were me I'd sneak out and buy 40 new ones...
Husbands? If I were a) female & b) the OP, I'd be inclined to look for
a new one!

"Vera" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 18:13:51 -0000, "Jen" wrote:

Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles. He's taken the tiles off the bathroom
wall,
and wants to reuse them. He's updating the bathroom so thankfully it's
only
about 40 tiles. Any ideas what's the quickest solution to this dreaded
task?
I would be grateful for your advise



If it were me I'd sneak out and buy 40 new ones...
-------------
I have tried but they have been discontinued. They are nice tiles, they were
only put on about 5 years ago and still haven't dated. Oh well I'll have to
get the elbow crease out.. ah.

In article ,
Jen wrote:
Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles. He's taken the tiles off the bathroom
wall, and wants to reuse them. He's updating the bathroom so thankfully
it's only about 40 tiles. Any ideas what's the quickest solution to
this dreaded task? I would be grateful for your advise

If it's ordinary tile adhesive rather than a cement based one leave them
soaking in water for a day or so and it will wipe off.

--
*When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Jen wrote:

Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles. He's taken the tiles off the bathroom wall,
and wants to reuse them. He's updating the bathroom so thankfully it's only
about 40 tiles. Any ideas what's the quickest solution to this dreaded task?
I would be grateful for your advise

Jen


Drop them in a bucket of brick acid.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Jen wrote:

Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles. He's taken the tiles off the bathroom
wall, and wants to reuse them. He's updating the bathroom so thankfully
it's only about 40 tiles. Any ideas what's the quickest solution to
this dreaded task? I would be grateful for your advise


If it's ordinary tile adhesive rather than a cement based one leave them
soaking in water for a day or so and it will wipe off.

Brick acid will kill the cement based ones. Its the waterproof or epoxy
ones that are a bugger..

It was somewhere outside Barstow when "Jen"
wrote:

Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles.

I've done this before, but only for valuable tiles like Victorian
encaustics, or for the decoratives inset into a cast iron fireplace.
For plain old wall tiles where you _can_ just buy more of them, then
don't be so silly.

Remove the adhesive by soaking it for a few days in slightly acidified
water. Then use a Plasplugs "tile file" (an open mesh, not a solid
bar - coupel of quid from B&Q) to remove the softened adhesive.

Don't use any concentrated acid. If they're anywhere near old enough
to be worth recycling, then there's a risk that existing and invisible
crazing on the surface will light up in glorious Technigrimecolour if
you do.

If they've been laid on bitumen, then &deity; help you. I used
cyclohexane and _gentle_ warmth. Knowing how flammable cyclohexane is
will tell you how hard work this was.
--
Smert' spamionam

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
It was somewhere outside Barstow when "Jen"
wrote:

Hi, my husband has given me the awful job of taken off the tile adhesive
from the back of ceramic tiles.

I've done this before, but only for valuable tiles like Victorian
encaustics, or for the decoratives inset into a cast iron fireplace.
For plain old wall tiles where you _can_ just buy more of them, then
don't be so silly.

Remove the adhesive by soaking it for a few days in slightly acidified
water. Then use a Plasplugs "tile file" (an open mesh, not a solid
bar - coupel of quid from B&Q) to remove the softened adhesive.

Don't use any concentrated acid. If they're anywhere near old enough
to be worth recycling, then there's a risk that existing and invisible
crazing on the surface will light up in glorious Technigrimecolour if
you do.

If they've been laid on bitumen, then &deity; help you. I used
cyclohexane and _gentle_ warmth. Knowing how flammable cyclohexane is
will tell you how hard work this was.
--
Thanks for the advise! I soaked them in hot water for a couple of days and
that has done he trick.