Removing old tiles

[sifu]

Hi, has anyone experience with removing old tiles from a bathroom. I'm replacing my bathroom suite soon and the first thing I need to do is get the tiles off. 3 walls are plasterboard, 1 is breeze block. I've heard that it's often better to tile over old tiles rather than remove them. Is this true in your experience? I'd rather remove them all if possible but I'm not sure what to expect, especially with the plasterboard walls.
Also, I'll be shortening the soil pipe. My house is 20 years old so do new toilet pans use the same fittings as they did 20 years ago or will I need a reducing coupling of some sort.

Thanks, Paul

 

[DAZB]

They say that the best surface to tile is onto existing tiles, the reason being that you already have a flat wall to work with.You may find that with the tiles fixed to plasterboard that you won't have much luck getting them off cleanly.
In general most toilet waste pipes tend to be the same size diameter but it may be worth checking with your local Plumbers Merchants.

 

[sifu]

Thanks for the advice!

Cheers, Paul

 

[Scott]

I've just finished my bathroom and when I came to fit the toilet my soil pipe was smaller in diameter than all standard fittings. My house is and bathroom was about 30 years old. I ended up doing a fix on a slightly larger connector, which I would not recommend.

Apparently you can buy v small connectors but they are hard to come by and might need to be ordered.

 

[Drew]

Be very careful tiling onto old tiles, although its a nice flat surface to tile onto, if the existing tiles are not 100% sound then the additional weight will bring the whole lot down. Best to get back to the original surface, a large flat scraper tapped behind the tile is usually enough to pop them off.
You have been warned....)