Can I retile the laundry myself?

beemerx65

hi. I’m looking at renovating my laundry. The house was built in the early 90’s. It has the typical green and cream mosaic tiles. Obviously I want to change them for modern tiles. Is it possible to rip up & re tile myself or would it probably be need to be re screeded again which I think is outside of my capabilities 🙄

😁

JacobZ

Hi @beemerx65,

Many thanks for your question about retiling a laundry floor.

Screeding is done in wet areas to create a fall towards a floor drain. It is not 100% necessary in laundries, but I have seen it done before.

Is there a floor drain anywhere in the laundry?

Do you own a spirit level? If so, can you tell me how level the floor is?

If there is a drain, and you find that the floor is not level, the floor has likely been screeded. If you don't see these things, it is unlikely the floor has been screeded.

Regardless, it is possible to remove the current tiles without damaging the screed underneath, you would just need to take some care when removing them.

Another thing to consider is if you remove the tiles and find a waterproofing membrane it would be best to repair it if it is damaged in the tile removal process.

You might like to check out a few of our handy How-To guides while preparing for your project:

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob

beemerx65

Thanks Jacob. I’ve uploaded a few pictures. The floor tiles are mainly all level apart from a small area around the floor waste ??
Do you think that it is a screeded full floor area ?
😁🙏

JacobZ

Hi @beemerx65,

It's certainly possible it has been screeded since there is a fall towards the drain, but it is still not a certainty.

Is this on the ground level of your property? If so, where is the floor in relation to the foundation slab?

If it is noticeably higher than the foundation slab, it's likely the floor has been screeded to achieve the fall. If it is at the same level as the outside slab, the concrete may have just been poured with a fall towards the drain.

The only real way to confirm what is beneath the tiles is to pull them off. You might like to pick a discrete location and remove one of the tiles to see.

It's possible to remove the tiles without damaging screed, but you would need to be cautious. You can start this by removing the grout around the tile you wish to remove using a QEP Grout Saw. This will allow you to get something like this Trojan 375mm Pry Bar underneath the tile so you can lever it off. Make sure that the pry bar is firmly underneath the edge of the tile and is not digging into the surface underneath. Placing a block underneath the pry bar can help you get more leverage to remove the tile.

Once a tile is off, we can inspect the substrate to determine how to proceed.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob