Let's talk tile.

[motoman]

The house we're closing on has 10"x10" terracotta tiles in the garage. I don't know why you'd tile a garage but the previous owners did. Tiles are already starting to crack in the garage and will probably continue to crack so it's my plan to remove them before moving in.

Now, how hard is it to remove tile? What's the best way to remove tiles?

[Chuck_Finley]

Rotary hammer

[Tyrone Biggums]

Rotary hammer. You can rent one from Rental Stop or Home Depot and the rates are very reasonable. Invest in good eye, ear, hand and dust protection as well.

[beefed88]

Face shield for sure.

[black2002ls]

The tile is the easy part! The hard part will be the thinset underneath! Getting a smooth surface will take a good deal of time, and most likely require a grinder. We removed all of the tile in our house with a manual tile scraper. It went pretty quick, though I think the install was poorly done.

How old is the house? It is a safe bet that those cracks are a result of cracks in the slab underneath it and the house moving.

[lincolnboy]

That tile should break fairly easy. My thought is what are they hiding under the tile.

[8mpg]

Home depot rents a walk behind tile scraper... spend the extra $20 on rental and save yourself many hours of anger

[dcs13]

Make it part of the deal. Make them remove and smooth before closing or get cash off the deal to pay a pro to do it.

[lincolnboy]

The bad thing about having to grind off the thin set, it will leave the concrete smooth. Slippery when wet.

[STANGGT40]

Go to Home Depot and rent this...it's the easiest way to demo tile and smooth out thin-set without destroying your back.

http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/PRO_Floor_Stripper/FCS16/index.html

[black2002ls]

The bad thing about having to grind off the thin set, it will leave the concrete smooth. Slippery when wet.

Garage floors are poured with a smooth finish

[motoman]

Rotary hammer. You can rent one from Rental Stop or Home Depot and the rates are very reasonable. Invest in good eye, ear, hand and dust protection as well.

Good info, I didn't think about dust protection. My plan was to leave the garage door open and get a couple box fans or something to push any dust out. Think that will work?

The tile is the easy part! The hard part will be the thinset underneath! Getting a smooth surface will take a good deal of time, and most likely require a grinder. We removed all of the tile in our house with a manual tile scraper. It went pretty quick, though I think the install was poorly done.

I had no doubts about having to rent a cement sander to sand down any left over grout pieces.

How old is the house? It is a safe bet that those cracks are a result of cracks in the slab underneath it and the house moving.

The house was built in 1980 and the house did have some foundation repairs in mid 2014 so I'm sure some of the cracks are from shifting. I also know that tile won't hold up to several thousand pound cars on it forever.

That tile should break fairly easy. My thought is what are they hiding under the tile.

Just concrete.

Make it part of the deal. Make them remove and smooth before closing or get cash off the deal to pay a pro to do it.

So we weren't the highest offer but they decided to accept our offer because of a handwritten letter my girlfriend wrote to the seller telling them how much we wanted the house. We don't want to risk the final negotiations at closing with this as we have a couple other things we're going to negotiate at closing.

The bad thing about having to grind off the thin set, it will leave the concrete smooth. Slippery when wet.

My plan is to get rid of this tile, smooth out the cement, and put some sort of floor coating down, so it won't be bare cement.

[black2002ls]

Is the furnace/air handler in the garage? Mine is in a garage closet. If it is, make sure you seal that closet up on the garage side. That will help rdduce the amount of dust that gets drawn into the hvac system!

[motoman]

Is the furnace/air handler in the garage? Mine is in a garage closet. If it is, make sure you seal that closet up on the garage side. That will help rdduce the amount of dust that gets drawn into the hvac system!

Fortunately it's not.

[black2002ls]

Thats good. I did some painting in the garage while we were remodeling. The smell ended up all in the house.