How to remove this tile adhesive? Any products that help?

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

I am removing the floor tiles in my kitchen, which were laid over other floor tiles beneath them. We're going to try to keep the tiles beneath if we can, but in some cases the adhesive is coming off nicely where as in others it is a pig's arse to remove...

Are there any techniques or products people use to help remove this type of adhesive?

Cheers

 

[sircerebus666]

Nice old tiles underneath them.

Some people find steaming the old adhesive off works well , never tried it myself though

 

[JaimieH]

I think steaming is only worth trying with acrylic adhesives although I've not tried it either. Your adhesive looks like cement based to me. I think you'll be really lucky to scrape it all off and leave the tiles underneath looking ok. Good luck though.

 

[Lower]

We did something similar in our hall. The original tiles (same colour as yours) had been tiled over with modern tiles.

There was no magic to getting the adhesive off. It was a case of chipping, scraping and brick acid to help dissolve the cement based adhesive. I did about half of it and then found a specialist who finished it off.

After all the adhesive was gone and all the tiles had been cleaned and polished by the specialist, we were a bit disappointed with the results. The original yellow tiles had absorbed something from the cement based tile adhesive and the comb lines from when the tiles had been laid over the top were clearly visible. It wasn't too bad when the tiles were spotlessly clean, but for some reason the marks attracted dirt faster than the rest of the tiles.

We should have put the time and effort into lifting the tiles and replacing with reclaimed originals in better condition.

Before

After

 

[foxhole]

The adhesive deteriorates in water, lay old towels over and keep wet for a few days , may loosen.