How Do I Remove and Install Tile?
- 1). Lay thick towels or canvas tarps over a few square feet of the floor. Begin hitting the floor with a sledgehammer, through the towels, breaking up the tiles. The towels should keep the sharp pieces from flying around the room. Repeat for all areas of the floor, moving the towels around as needed.
- 2). Scoop up the broken tiles with a coal shovel and discard them. Go over the floor with a floor scraper to take up any residual mortar or grout. Sweep thoroughly.
- 3). Snap two chalk lines across the floor with your chalk snapline, from the middle of one edge of the floor to the middle of the edge across from it, in both directions. You will end up with a large ``plus'' sign across the floor, with the two lines intersecting in the center.
- 4). Lay a coat of thin-set mortar over point where the lines intersect, using a notched mortar trowel. Cover enough area to encompass at least four tiles.
- 5). Press four tiles in place at the intersection, in the mortar, putting tile spacers between them. Apply additional mortar and continue laying tiles, building out along the lines and putting spacers between all of them.
- 6). Cut the tiles around the perimeter of the floor with your tile cutter to fit them against the walls.
- 7). Let the mortar set for 24 hours. Remove the spacers.
- 8). Spread grout over the floor with a grout float, starting at one corner and working across in sections of a few square feet. For each section, press the grout into the lines, let it sit for five minutes, then wipe up the excess with a damp sponge. Grout the whole floor. Let it set for two days.