# HELP!! Demo 30yo 12x12 Terra Cotta!!



## harleydude (Apr 27, 2013)

I started 2 days ago on a demo of 4500sqft of this on a showroom floor and it sucks! I've sharpened my bobcat's bucket to a razor as well as the alligator attachment (x4 teeth), used a 60lb jack hammer with an asphalt cutter, (works the best yet) I've rented an air pole chisel, useless. Tommorow I am using a 90lb hammer with an asphalt bit and yes, my guys are using a sledge hammer to strike tile in center to get air under it before we hit it with anything else. I've heard that a riding tile stripper may work but where do I rent one? Does anybody have any good ideas? Any chemicals out there to soften up the grout and thin set?? Help!?!?! Thanks guys!


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Does your rental place not have a walk behind tile scraper?

I'd rent one of those and get 3 others to scoop up the mess behind him.


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## Calidecks (Nov 19, 2011)

harleydude said:


> I started 2 days ago on a demo of 4500sqft of this on a showroom floor and it sucks! I've sharpened my bobcat's bucket to a razor as well as the alligator attachment (x4 teeth), used a 60lb jack hammer with an asphalt cutter, (works the best yet) I've rented an air pole chisel, useless. Tommorow I am using a 90lb hammer with an asphalt bit and yes, my guys are using a sledge hammer to strike tile in center to get air under it before we hit it with anything else. I've heard that a riding tile stripper may work but where do I rent one? Does anybody have any good ideas? Any chemicals out there to soften up the grout and thin set?? Help!?!?! Thanks guys!


Man I got exhausted just reading this thread.


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

Better than a hand scraper or rotary hammer.


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## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

Californiadecks said:


> Man I got exhausted just reading this thread.


But halfway through it, I wanted to get up, fully amped up, and run in circles, stomping my feet, smacking my head, cussin up a storm!

OK, now that's over, I'm tired too.


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## GO Remodeling (Apr 5, 2005)

Serentals.net has a listing of tools for ceramic removal. You can see if you local outfits carry similar machines.


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## Midwest Tile (Jun 7, 2013)

Hammer and chisel should do the trick!


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## GO Remodeling (Apr 5, 2005)

He's got 4500sqft to remove. Might try the demo hammer w chisel bit. But you have a soft tile so it just might crumble instead of popping off the thinset.
What are you trying now?


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## Paulie (Feb 11, 2009)

Asphalt grinder attachment??? LINK


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## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

olzo55 said:


> He's got 4500sqft to remove.


....and two days into it, he's trying to figure out how to do it. :laughing:


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## EthanB (Sep 28, 2011)

CO762 said:


> ....and two days into it, he's trying to figure out how to do it. :laughing:


Well he figured it out once already. It just didn't work.:whistling

I've been there before but not with that kind of square footage. 

I was ripping up a couple thousand feet of carpet. I did a little test strip in the back to make sure it came up easy and it did. I swear I must have hit the only easy spot in the entire store because when I started I couldn't get more than a 10-12" strip up and it was like trying to drag a train. Nobody local had a carpet ripper either.

It didn't help that they had shut off the heat to the space a few days before so the floor was trying to heat up from about 10 degrees.


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## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

Dontcha just love it when your test shots are the best, then when ya do it, it just gets worse, and worse, and worse.....

This is one thing about residential remods of old(er) houses that have been worked on/added to....ya just never know what's behind wall number 1 or door number 5.


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## deter (Apr 4, 2013)

you really don't know where to rent a tool? 

http://www.sunbeltrentals.com/Equipment/equipment.aspx?itemid=0680120&catid=s243


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## Creter (Oct 13, 2009)

heh heh...

Reminds me of the time I went to strip all the layers to sub floor and the plywood underlayment for the original sheet good was stapled about every inch and a half along with being glued down.

Fun, fun, fun!


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## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

Time to break out the chick on the piece of rental equipment.


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## GO Remodeling (Apr 5, 2005)

I'm thinking you might have thought the bobcat bucket would just peel the ceramic tile up. Removing a buckets worth of tile might not work very well.You know, the strength in numbers thing. If you sharpen a fork, you might be able to remove just a row of tile. 

Then there's the thinset to remove.:whistling


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## harleydude (Apr 27, 2013)

Thank you to all the guys who replied with constructive advice...I really appreciate it! To all the smart asses=go blow a goat! So we finished up this morning and there was no easy way to get the stuff to poo. Some tiles had thin set only on the back of the tile with 3/16" trowel depth, the rest had what seemed to be 1/2" on both tile and floor. I discovered that by wetting the tiles and let em marinate overnight, it softens them up considerably, then used the bobcat and the 90lb hammer with the asphalt cutter, (essential) for the stubborn ones. We still have quite a bit of thin set to remove, so im gonna soak it and hit it with my razored edge bucket. PS. To the sunbelt smartass- The closest tile stripper is 5 hours away and was $800/day plus delivery.


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## harleydude (Apr 27, 2013)

Yes, the terra cotta was so soft that not only did it surface crumble but the bobcat bucket just rounded the edge. The gentleman who emailed me suggested a great idea and that was to sharpen the fork attachment and get underneath. Popping the tile with a good wrap to the center of it was the difference between 2 minutes per tile versus 1.


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## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

harleydude said:


> To the sunbelt smartass- The closest tile stripper is 5 hours away and was $800/day plus delivery.


There aren't any strippers closer?


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## deter (Apr 4, 2013)

harleydude said:


> PS. To the sunbelt smartass- The closest tile stripper is 5 hours away and was $800/day plus delivery.


Well, thanks for letting us know your location... I'm not a clairvoyant, afterall. You asked where to rent the correct tool and I showed you... You seem like the typical "harleydude"


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