the tiles are laid down using thinset cement. Mastic not used.
Try using a putty knife,holding it flat on the ground and working it gently under and around the edges of the tile,applying very little pressure upward,the tile should snap off in one piece.
Trying to save the tile is a lost cause. You'll end up breaking them. The good thing about tile, if done right, it is forever. The bad thing about tile, it is forever, until you decide to replace it.. Double edged sword.
If the tiles were properly laid with thinset cement, you're out of luck. You'll end up breaking almost every tile in the process. Sorry to give you the bad news.
After installing,,,and removing thousands of sq. ft. of tile, I suggest what the others have. Accept that the job will cause loss. It should be pretty obvious why, and I'll give you an abstract example. Once upon a time postage stamps needed to be moistened to stick. If you felt like you wanted to retrieve the stamp and just attempted pulling a dried stamp from an envelope your success rate would be minimal. The difference in this analogy and your situation is that you can't separate tile from mortar, from the sub floor by steaming and unless you flood the area for a good length of time the mortar won't separate either. An even more valid concern is,,, even if you managed some intact tile, you'd have to grind or chip the mortar from the unfinished side, possibly damaging or breaking those tiles you so wanted to save. No offense at all but tile is relatively inexpensive, but sadly rarely able to be matched over any long time span. Any tile job I've ever done includes no less than 3 extra cases of tile, over and above what I consider might be needed in 10 to 15% waste. Certainly if the tiles were expensive, rare, imported one of a kind, decorative, I understand perhaps wanting to salvage them, but you don't state the WHY of your Q, so I can't truly know. Steven Wolf (The Rev.)
if they are ceramic and have been laid in a morter bed (standard way of laying these tile) your going to end up breaking a lot of them --best to tear them all up and start over scrape floor as much as you can to get old morter off be careful if your on a wood base -- not as bad if your on a slab
