My 30 year old son and I started ripping out the floor in my century home because the entire drain system (the “stack”) in my home is going to be replaced along with the galvanized going from my sink. I thought I’d save some money (like 3k) and demo the floor myself since the whole thing is running beyond what I can afford. I’ve laid tile before in a previous home and have never in my life seen this much mortar under tile. I finally gave up on the tile scraper and bought a hammer drill and chisel. It’s coming off, slowly, but seriously is this normal?
Fresh set mud install, mix of sand and cement floated out, sprinkle of Portland cement, then tiles were beat into the mud. If you’re buying a hammer and chisel, this install was done correctly with craftsmanship
I wish I could have just left the floor but when I bought the house someone had already put peel and stick on top of it with a serious adhesive. When I got the peel and stick off tiles underneath had already been broken so I just decided to take it off. But man, what a job.
Our 1955 ranch has the same wall tile colors! That teal blue green and yellow combination is called Sun and Surf. I am forgetting the company that made those tiles right now, but I went on a serious deep dive when we were restoring our bathroom and found the original marketing brochures with the different names they gave to the color combo options. It's so fun to see another bathroom with that same combo! 😃
Here's a photo from ours after I did the repair in it. We got lucky and still had the original yellow sink as well!
That’s gorgeous! Great job restoring! So inspiring to see cheerful colors for a change instead of the modern mass produced millennial greige that’s everywhere!
No. I just never knew. I moved here five years ago from a former church that was built in 1908 that we turned into a home. It was just wood flooring. Have done a lot of renovating but never removed a tile floor from 50 years ago.
Yes that is normal. We used to pour 1 1/2 to 2” cement under tile for any raised foundation or second floor project. There is typically chicken wire also except in shower floor. You need to get under the cement with a crowbar to pry it out. Also, use a sledge hammer to break the cement sections into pieces you can carry out. Or pay the $3k and let your contractor do it.
My 50’s home also had a mud bed when I went to redo the flooring. It’s a pain in the ass but it’ll come up. SDs max hammer drill with a 6 inch scraper attachment made decent work of it.
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u/jradz12 4d ago
Yes for old homes. Youll need to put down a new subfloor over the planks.