Removing ceramic tile adhesive from soft wood

[woodsome]

I recently fitted new kitchen worktops which necessitated the removal of ceramic tiles from the wall behind. These tiles were adhered to the softwood wall planks and although the tiles came off ok, I am left with a lot of very hard adhesive stuck to the softwood planking.

I want to retile this area. How do I get the hard adhesive off the planking? Scraping doesn't seem to do the wood much good and before I roll my sleeves up and and get scraping for a week, I wonder if any of you know an easier way?

Thanks,

Woody
Lewes, E. Sussex

 

[roughcaster]

Hi Woody,
Quite often,with old tile adhesive,once it's on,it's on.Are you retiling the whole area again,or just replacing the tiles you have taken off to accomodate your new worktops? If you are retiling the whole area again,and the old tile cement isn't too rough,you could tile back onto it,or you could smooth it off by skimming it,thinly with a coat of tile adhesive,as you go,just to fill in the tiling trowel marks.That will give you a good enough surface to tile back onto.If on the other hand you have only taken off say one row,you would probably have to try and take the old stuff back a bit,otherwise when you retile,your tiles will stick out a bit proud of the original tiles.Hope that helps.
Regards:Roughcaster.

 

[gcol]

Welcome to the forum.
Have a bash with one of these http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=45940&ts=47692
What does it matter if the wood is damaged if you're re-tiling it?

 

[lancenotalot]

I have a couple of old large chisels that I keep for such jobs.Its one of those jobs that needs to be done unfortunatley,its all in the preperation

 

[gcol]

An old chisel is ideal and is what I use occasionally. The tool I posted a link to will be less likely to dig in though.

 

[woodsome]

Thanks for both suggestions, and I'll do both - take a bit off, then leave what's there and just skim over it. I'm taking off an entire row of tiles, there will be none of the old tiles left.