www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I've got to re-fit a dozen of so tiles (ceramic) and wondered what was the best way to get the old adhesive off?

Don't want to bolster it off as there is a risk of cracking the tiles which of course are old and probably can't be replaced!

submerge them in water for a couple of days or so hopefully it will soften the adhesive a little to allow you to get it off

lamntile wrote:submerge them in water for a couple of days or so hopefully it will soften the adhesive a little to allow you to get it off

I was hoping to do the job in 1/2 a day.

Depending on the adhesive used you might get away with shorter just keep trying to see if the adhesive has softened.

if youve got em off without breaking them and the adhesives still stuck to the back then they cant have been stuck particularly well in the first place so seeing as its only a patch up job and youve got 4 hours...
stick em on with silicon, it squashes between the old adhesive so you can get em level that was a joke btw

i knew a bloke once who would take any whole removed tiles from a rip out job home with him, soak them overnight and scrape the adhesive off day after...
one time he did a fireplace with said tiles...
i have never to this day seen such an utterly abominable **** of a job...
they were blue, green, orange, white, brown, grey, black, in some sort of a psychedelic chequerboard pattern for a property developer too tight to buy new tiles..

You could try soaking them in very hot water a lot of adhesives go soft within minutes

chrisw w wrote:.....seeing as its only a patch up job and youve got 4 hours...

Since when had half a day been 4 hours! Lazy sod

Cheers all for the suggestions- I'll crack on and see how I get on.