How to clean old tiles and reuse them
76Building standards have dropped
I cannot believe the shoddy workmanship that has and is being done in the building industry these days. There is so much cutting corners, cheaper products, finishing products not used in some instances. Why isn’t the work done properly. Yes, they think they will get away with it.
There should be more duty of care, and responsibility taken for this shoddy work. You see it all the time on the news where balconies collapse and people are killed or seriously injured. Why is this type of building passed by the building inspectors?
We had a gas heater installed a couple of years ago, they said someone would be out to check it. No one came.
Yes I know, what has all this got to do with cleaning tiles. I am coming to that. We were sitting in our kitchen and heard a few noises. We couldn’t find the cause. A few days later, we heard a louder noise and then a cracking. We hurried into our laundry and couldn’t believe our eyes. Our tiles were standing up like pitched tents all mainly in one area. We couldn’t believe it. According to the experts, it was something to do with the glue used and the tiles laid too close, together. I do not know but it sure made a mess.
Chipping the back of the tiles great safety boots he wore
Use small grinder for this using great care.
No matching tiles
As with technology everything changes. That’s right we could not buy the same tiles anymore. And as a lot of the tiles broke we had to buy new ones. Over the years even the sizes of the tiles change this is a good ploy when you think about it as everyone has to spend more money in replacing the whole floor of tiles instead of cleaning the unbroken ones and reusing them.
Wear safety goggles and gloves
Make sure you wear the safety goggles; our tiler got a piece of tile in his eye and caused a lot of problems.
Cleaning your tiles
If you are lucky, and the tiles have come off for one reason or another, you can soak the tiles in water overnight. This helps soften the grout, although the main thing is it lessens the dust flying about when you clean them. Then using a grinder gently clean off the old glue from the back. Take care not to damage the tile. Use a spatula or a knife as I used and run it around the edges to remove the remaining grout.
If yours are anything like the tiles we had to clean, half the brickwork from our shower wall came off on the back of the tiles. There was no membrane put on the shower wall before laying the tiles. That’s another gripe against the so called experienced trade’s people. (Sorry the shower saga is my next article).
You can also stand the tile on its side and using a small chisel and hammer, put the chisel to the edge of the concrete or grout and tap lightly with hammer. Do not put it on the edge of the tile. Be careful as you do want to keep the tiles in one piece. Now wash and dry the tiles to remove excess dust and pack away ready to be relaid when needed.
We are using the old shower tiles, what’s left of them to tile above the hand basin in the bathroom as none were put there when the bathroom was tiled originally.
I hope with the aid of the pictures you will be able to understand how you can clean and reuse your old tiles.
Tis is a little bit more of what has been hjappening at our house because of grout leaks in shower recess through the walls.
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Poor workmanship on our homes and buildings
do you think builders Association does enough to improves standards of our buildings
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I've heard builder horror-stories. Like the one where a street of houses in a development site got their driveways concreted. House one gets re-enforcing and the building inspector gets to see it in place before the poor. When he leaves, the builder moves the re-enforcing to the next house, and pores the concrete in the one already inspected, but no longer re-enforced drive. Cheap and crooked builders are a big worry.
I also scored 12 meters of glass balustrade second hand from a company that jokingly referred to themselves as "remedial builders" because their job was to dive in a fix up all the shoddy work that failed inspection.
rosie, to be honest I am not sure the best way is to take one if you have a spare to a tile shop and ask them. If you dont have a spare then take a photo of them to show the salesperson.
how can i find out if my tile is antique and how much it is worth ? many thanks
bonny 2010, Hope it helps you. If tiles are old it will be hard to get a match or could be impossible. And it may be impossible to get all tiles off without breaking. Good luck you will need it.
knew you had this one here somewhere have got to replace the tiles on my wall -thanks forthe advice
fishtiger, yes and you have to be very careful as tiles break so easily. thanks for stopping by
I know what cleaning the tiles is like. We had to redo our chimney and it was made with tiffany bricks and they were lovely. We wanted to use them so had to clean them. What a chore. Apparently there used to be a tiffany brick company in my town and alot of the house here have them. So we cleaned them and reused them.
ethel its the same here no responsibility is taken anymore and the lawyers and solicitors do not care they just want to win no matter who is right or wrong
In the UK there are far too many cowboy builders. Good info Eileen
We have nearly survived two months of doing up a bathroom simply because the grout leaked. Its still going to be a mess for xmas, but at least we may get a shower for christmas day if we are lucky.
I have had tile nightmares in the past. This would have been very helpful then. Happily I don't think I will ever have to bother ever again...but if I do I will re-read. Thanks.
Eileen Hughes Hub Author 4 months ago
Yes you are so right. And People having their new homes built are charged for so much more than is actually used on the building. Instead it is left outside and taken to the tip if no one steals it.
Such a waste and no one does anything about it.