Old House Remodeling: Removing Old Tile and Glue
When you live in old house like I do, remodeling is always a challenge and a surprise. I am currently involved in a major kitchen remodel. Our kitchen like many kitchens, has seen better days. It was installed in the house was built back in 1945 and I'm sure it's has served its previous owners well. However, modern kitchens are large and open. This kitchen, like most kitchens of its era, a small enclosed off. We decided to open the kitchen out by removing part of the wall, removing old tile from the walls, and updating the entire kitchen with new cabinets and appliances. Our first surprise came when we moved the refrigerator from its current location.
The refrigerator sat up on a platform about 1 inch off the kitchen floor. We never
gave it much thought and assumed that it had always been like that. When I move
the refrigerator and lifted up the old flooring, I discovered why. Plumbing from the
sink did not go through the floor to join a drain pipe in the basement. It did,
however, run across the floor and under the refrigerator. This required some major
engineering to move the drain line for the new sink and dishwasher. Surprise number two was the ceramic tile on the walls. The ceramic tile wound up
not being ceramic tile at all! It was tin tile that was glued to a masonite backing
board. The backing board was itself glued to the plaster walls and nailed every eight
to 10 inches. So while the tiles came down very easily using just a screwdriver,
getting they masonite backing board off the plaster was a nightmare. Not only were
the plaster walls full of holes from the nails, big globs of glue was smeared all over
the walls. At first I tried sanding. All that did was create a cloud of dust. After two
hours of creating dust clouds I had only managed in clearing off a 2' x 2' square
area. I talked to a number of contractors who only shook their heads and offered me
luck in removing the glue from the walls. Someone suggested I use glue remover
but I didn't want the fumes in the house. Someone else suggested a strong scraper
but I wasn't strong enough to remove this glue. Finally, someone suggested a heat
gun. I was skeptical. How would a little heat gun remove 60 years of hard and glue?
Much to my surprise, it worked! Now it didn't work easily. It was still a lot of hard
work, but by working slowly, and steadily, I was able to remove all remnants of glue
in about four days. I hope this tip and technique helps you if you ever encounter a similar situation. I
know what I first started removing the glue from the wall, I would get discouraged
thinking it would never end. However, by working slowly and steadily, I managed to
get a little bit done each and every hour. I took frequent breaks, and went outside
for a breather every couple of hours. It didn't help that I was doing this in the
middle of summer when the temperature was in the 90s. However with
perseverance, this task can be finished easily. And if you do it yourself, you'll save
all the money that you would pay contractor to do the exact same thing. Dean Novosat is an avid do-it-yourselfer and remodeler. He writes for http://build-decks-patios.com, http://for-gadget-guys.com, and http://www.the-kitchen-designer.com
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