How to Remove Bathroom Tile In 10 Steps

Start by placing drop cloth on the sink, tub, door handles, and any other delicate items on or in your bathroom you want to protect. Wear safety goggles and glasses while you work.

There’s typically a few bathroom tiles installed underneath your toilet, which you’ll need to remove if you’re pulling up the rest. If you don’t temporarily remove the toilet, you’re risking potential water damage. If you’re hesitant about taking the toilet apart, hire a local plumber to tackle this part of the project for you.

Here’s how to temporarily remove your toilet:

• Shut the water off at the main valve, then flush your toilet to empty it.

• Detach the water supply underneath the tank.

• Remove the bolts holding the tank to the bowl with a wrench.

• Remove the tank.

• Unscrew the toilet bowl from the floor bolts, then lift the bowl and put it to someplace safe.

Use your hammer and chisel to remove the grout between tiles. Work from the corner of one tile and cut a straight line through the grout. Let the chisel penetrate deep enough to remove all the grout, but be gentle to avoid damaging the subfloor. 

Once you’ve removed the grout from between the tiles, use a broom or a shop vacuum to suck up the excess grout. Grout removal is a time-consuming portion of the job, but you can feel good knowing you’re saving cash by doing it yourself.

Next, pull out one and three bathroom floor tiles using a pry bar. (Yes, only a few to start—you’ll see why in a moment.)

In some cases, a pry bar may be all you need to pull the first tiles away from the floor. If your tile is stuck—the first few are always the most challenging—use a scoring tool to cut diagonally across one or two tiles. The new groove should make it easier to get a pry bar underneath it so you can pull it up with more force.

If you’re planning to replace the subfloor, you can break the first few tiles with a hammer to help loosen it up. Once one breaks, you’ll have more leverage to remove the other tiles.

At this point, you need to make a big decision that could add hours to the job (or save you lots of time and money). What’s the state of your subfloor? Can you sand it down and reuse it for the new tile floor? Or will you need to replace it altogether? 

Signs that it’s time to replace your bathroom subfloor include:

• Squeaks when you walk over tile

• Sagging or sinking sections

• Tile cracks

• Water damage

If you find any of these signs during your subfloor inspection, it’s better to be safe and install a new subfloor before you retile the bathroom.

Once you’ve decided on the subfloor situation, remove the rest of the floor tiles. Technically speaking, you don’t have to carefully remove them if you’re reinstalling a new subfloor. If that’s the case, you can use a powered chipping hammer to speed through this part of the process.

That’s why we recommend the manual removal method until this point, though; if you use power tools to remove your tiles, there’s a greater chance you’ll damage the material beneath it and need to replace a previously good-conditioned subfloor.

Once you remove the tiles, you can remove the subfloor if needed, too. Most substrates sitting below bathroom tiles are made from plywood or cement boards, which you can cut with a handsaw or a reciprocating saw. Cut in sections, starting near the wall and working your way toward the middle. If you don’t want to use power tools, you can use a hammer or sledgehammer to break the substrate into pieces and then remove them manually. 

Finally, if your tiles are more than 50 years old, they were likely installed into a mortar bed. While the process is more time-consuming, the most efficient way to remove the mortar bed is with a hammer and chisel.

Now it’s time to move onto the shower tiling. Lay some additional drop cloths down if needed, especially on your subfloor if you aren’t replacing it.

Follow the same steps: Remove the grout first, and then pry away the tiles. Shower walls are thinner than subfloors, so you can use a utility knife to penetrate the first tile instead of a scoring tool. If you’re completing a full bathroom remodeling, it may seem simpler to tear out the shower walls with a sledge hammer and dispose of the materials.

If your subfloor is in good enough shape that you aren’t replacing it, you can rent a floor sander to sand it down. Floor sanders cost about $40 to rent from a home improvement store. 

Read the manufacturer’s instructions carefully and sand the subfloor until it’s smooth and level. 

Leveling your subfloor is important for laying new tiles down, as an uneven surface may prevent tiles from sitting correctly or staying sealed. Then, vacuum the area to remove leftover dust or debris.

The hard part’s over! There are several ways to get rid of tile, and you should determine a removal plan before starting the project so you’re not left with a pile of dusty tile.

You can rent a dumpster, donate usable tiles, or hire a local junk removal service. Junk removal costs between $100 to $600 for construction waste removal, depending on the amount of waste.