I need to take a tile that is on the wall under my bathroom sink cabinet to use it to replace some visible tiles. I know it‘s possible to remove the old damaged tiles, but obviously I don‘t want to damage the ones that I‘m going to use to replace the bad ones.
it can be done by using a thin chisel or even an wallpaper scraper pushed behind each tile to break the adhesive seal. much will depend on the amount of adhesion and if the wall plaster is sound etc or the tiles are strong or thin weak and brittle. only by trail and error will you find out but there normally i find unless the tile is particularly well stuck to a wall it will in fact pry of easily and in fact you have to be ready to 'catch' it before it falls and shatters. watch out for broken tiles as the edges are extremely sharp .
Possibly easier solution: look for some decorative tiles that would go ok in the place of those damaged ones... just a few to randomly place as accents (of course, this depends on where the broken tiles are). Possibilities include glass tiles, contrast tiles, patterned tiles, and embossed tiles, as well as tiles matching in tone but of a radically different texture. If you want to see how a particular tile might look on the wall in advance, take a digital photo of each tile you're interested in, resize to life size) and tape prints over each tile you want to replace. Yes, you can do as you propose. My experience with removing tiles for re-use are that I seem to get between a 40 and 70% yield of useable tile when I try to salvage 4x4 tiles. Depends on how good the initial mastic was.
Have done just that. Could not find (or take the time ) to find matching tile. Borrowed tiles from behind cabinet base to patch wall . Grout saws as mentioned are OK. Had better luck w/ a serrated steak knife because of thinner blade. Started in area where drain entered the wall broke one to get things moving. Mastic was used to hold tile to wallboard used a heat gun Guess a hair dryer would do. Once I got movement (prying w/ knife) it was nervous work but I got what I needed. Cleaned edges backs of the transplant tiles used construction adhesive to reset. Used some mismatched tiles to replace old ones just to even up the wall. Take your time. Best regards
use a grout saw to take away all the grout that surrounds the tile. a little deeper than tile is thick. take some tape and tape the tile to the surrounding tiles or put something on the ground so that when the tile comes loose the tile does not break. next step is to use something that vibrates. can be a sander without the sandpaper and hold that against the tile. it will take some time but older tiles are coming loose. for a quick solution drill a hole and cover it up later with something ornamental
You can remove bathroom tile with a grout saw or grout removing bit for a Dremel-type tool. You then get in behind it and hammer it out with a hammer and a cold chisel (a cold chisel is a type of chisel - not a refrigerated one). Once you remove the tile, the hard part is going to be cleaning it up. You have to remove the adhesive from the back and it's pretty monotonous and will send dust everywhere, so do this outside. You are going to lose a few tiles though until you get the hang of it. It largely depends upon how much adhesive was put onto the wall first. Good luck.
