How Do You Remove Old Tile Adhesive From Walls

Tiles installed with thinset or another tile adhesive often require more work to remove them.

How do you remove old tile adhesive from walls.

Fill up a container with hot water. Usually you can get a few bits of the adhesive off from scraping the tiles. If a tougher adhesive was used water. But other parts of vinyl tile adhesive may take more time to come off completely.

If the adhesive used was organic mastic the water will begin to soften it allowing you to scrape it off. To lay new tile you must remove all of the old adhesive. Fill drywall gouges with drywall joint compound and sand it smooth. You can use the same kind of methods as you did when cleaning up the adhesive from the wall.

Or for best results you can soak the tiles in hot water. Wait several minutes and use a large scrapper to remove the mastic. Allow to fully dry. To remove thinset use a stiff putty knife and some elbow grease to scrape it from the wall.

The first step is to use a putty knife to scrape off the adhesive while applying heat to the adhesive to soften it up. If the adhesive is not cement based you could try sprinkling water to the wall to ease the scrapping process. For semi soft adhesive mastic use 120 grit sandpaper to remove it from the wall. Irrespective of the adhesive formula you have to cover the floor with old cloths as to protect it from the residues which will fall off the wall.

The method used to attach the tiles to the wall affects the way the tiles come off. Step 3 wipe some tile adhesive remover over the surface of the wall. Apply some water to a small section of the adhesive. Step 4 if substantial adhesive remains use a block of dry ice.