Flooring Tile - Need help on ripping out an old tile floor

I installed our tile floor about 10 years ago. It is on a wonder board base over 2 sheets of plywood. We are trying to pull up the tiles to put a different, tile floor down and the wonder board is comming up with it. Is there an easy way to separate the tile from the board, or will we have to take up the wonder board with the tile. If so are there any suggestions on how to procede with this. Thank you for your help. chums1

I use an electric demo hammer. Take up the CBU and tile in one demo. Then you have to chip or grind / sand all the thinset off th plywood subfloor.

Install new CBU with thinset and fasteners as specified. Then install your new tile.

Do not sand the Thinset,its a health hazard. you would be better off doing 1 of 2 things(both of which take less time and are less messy in the long run

1- remove the plywood underlayment completly and reinstall new plywood.if you decide on this method, remove only enough tile and wonderboard to make saw cuts of about 3x4.Pull underlayment,CBU and tile out in 1 panel and dispose of.If the underlayment runs underneath cabinets,you will need to remove tile and CBU around perimeter and use a toe kick saw to cut through Plywood.

2-(the easy method)-After removing tile and backerboard,vacuum entire area thoroughly.Using a quality modified thinset and a 16" flat trowel, skim coat the entire floor. Allow this to dry overnight. Now, install your new CBU and Tile.

Its easy when you know how and believe me,this aint my first Rodeo ;)

Unfortunately in this part of the woods the CBU is thinset directly to the wood subfloor without, and underlayment.

Grinding sanding and scraping all get incorperated into the job. They have illegal mexicans, that do tile take up here for .25¢ per foot. because I'm way more expensive then that!

I'd say since the original installation was 10 years ago, there's a good chance there isn't any thin set under the cement board. ;)

adanac, in the first post, chums1 said, "I installed our tile floor about 10 years ago."


So if they installed it, they would know if they set the CBU into thinset, as it is required to do so.