How To Remove Tile Without It Breaking

The first stage of our kitchen demo (see blog post here) was to pull up the tile that was secured to cement board and had low grout. This floor was incredibly hard to clean because the grout was so thin between the tiles. When we started removing the tile, the grout looked red instead of the dark brown color we saw – gross.

Tiles were pretty easy to pull up once we had a system and most of them came out in one piece. This is our version of how to remove tile without it breaking. You may find other techniques that work better for your type of flooring.

First start in an area where you can put a crow bar under the tile. You may need to remove carpet, wood, or trim to do this. For us we started by the stairway door where the tile met the stair carpet.

Second, wedge the crow bar under the tile and then either kick the crow bar (use safety-toe or steel-toe boots like to avoid injury) or hammer the crow bar in.

Third, use your leverage to pry on the tile. If is doesn’t pop out easily, repeat step two along the edge of the tile, much like when you are opening a can of paint. From there, your tile should easily lift off the cement board without breaking into small pieces.

Not all of our tiles came up perfectly, but many did. I thought of great uses for some tiles, but when I was gone one day many of them were taken to the dump. We will eventually redo the floor in our dining room, so I can use the tiles from there for other DIY projects.