Pro Handyman Blog

Ceramic tile can crack or break. You might drop something on a tile and chip the tile or break it. Before you replace it, you have to remove the old one.

When ceramic tile breaks, the pieces can be as sharp as glass. You must protect yourself with eye protection and gloves at a minimum.

Start by removing the grout at the perimeter of the tile. You can use a grout removing tool for this. Removing the grout will make installation of the new tile much easier and give you a little wiggle room. You may be able to lift a broken piece of tile out and tap out the rest of the tile with a hammer and chisel, putty knife, or screwdriver. Be careful as these pieces are very sharp.

Once you have the tile removed, you will have some floor mortar to remove. You can use a floor scraper, although the area will be fairly small. You can also try remove the old mortar with the hammer and chisel method or even use a grinder to get rid of it, although this will be messy. The goal here is to get down to the slab and remove the mortar so that the new tile won’t sit taller than the surrounding tiles.