Cement on Victorian Tiles

[Cardiffbloke]

Can you advise me on the best and quickest way of cleaning off old mortar/cement from the backs of Victorian floor tiles? I am trying to re-set an old tiled floor but the rear of the tiles are covered to a greater and lesser extent in old cement. I dont want to hammer it off and wreck the tiles in the process! any ideas? Thanks Howard

 

[Feltwell]

Hi Howard - welcome to the forum.

I presume you must have big lumps present on the back of your tiles that will stop you being able to lay them level? As clearly you don't need to be very fussy about the back of the tiles!

I would be tempted to try carefully chipping it off - lots of small blows is the key - with the tiles face down on a cloth on a workbench, with the back edge against something solid. Use a small cold chisel or perhaps a scutch comb:

http://www.toolbank.com/c/D9443

Keep the angle low so you're not hammering down into the tile.

Alternatively, used VERY carefully a small angle grinder fitted with a diamond blade could cut the worst off with minimal stress to the tile. It will generate lots of dust, a mask & goggles is essential - and the tile must be securely held in place, I'd screw some pieces of wood onto a workbench to make a primitive jig - or perhaps hold the tile in a workmate. Don't just hold the tile in your hand! This needs very careful use though, both for your safety and to stop you cutting into the body of the tile. You could get rid of the worst of the mortar this way, leaving only enough on so that you can lay them level.

Bear in mind many old tiles varied in thickness anyway.

 

[robgil]

you could try a very dilute solution of brick acid and a tooth brush?

 

[Feltwell]

I've found brick acid is OK (if used carefully) for removing smear-type staining, but for actually removing "lumps" it doesn't do much.

 

[robgil]

ive found it to soften it a bit but yes for lumps it might be a long , drawn out operation.
i used a pressure wash on my 700 odd floor bricks with good effect , although i will still need to wash them in diluted brick acid to get them properly nice and clean. 5 minutes or so per brick , 700 bricks , how many bottles of wine would we be talking here?

 

[Penners]

I think I would adopt Feltwell's recommendation of carefully grinding the mortar off, rather than any process involving impact.

But is the removal of the mortar absolutely necessary? Can you not re-lay them in such a way that the substrate can accommodate the lumps? This would be the safest method.

 

[Cardiffbloke]

Thank you for all your replies... I think the diamond wheel will do it, all the others can rest in the new cement as there are a few millimetres tolerance for laying....I just wondered if there was a magic solution... lol..
PS Im an old memnber... last post in 2007; just been away for a while (not nick!)....

 

[Moo]

the new cement

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[AMc]

Removing lumps off my 2" thick pamments. I started with a cold chisel and lump hammer but found the concrete was often so firmly bonded it took the face off with the cement or cracked the tile. So I adopted a grinder method. As the pamments were 9"x9" I couldn't get the face of the grinder over the whole tile parallel to the back so I (fairly) carefully scored grid lines vertically into the concrete on the back of the tile then at a right angle so the concrete on the back of the tile looked like a chocolate bar. Then inserted my cold chisel into the gaps and snapped off bit by bit with levering force (no hammer). Any 'blocks' that wouldn't budge were ground down individually. That gave me a flat enough surface to lay them and used the concrete as a key which didn't hurt. The obvious downside was that on occasion I cut into the back of the tile but that was preferable to the alternatives.

Brick acid cleaned up the surfaces of some, but did nothing at all to the mega hard mix used to secure the edges of the original floor.

If you relay your tiles in cement/concrete then you will be the last person using them. We laid into a lime mortar even though the screed below was concrete so if they need to come up or be reseated in future it will be possible. We figured it was worth waiting a few days for the floor to go off for the many years of extra use the pamments would be given.

 

[Cardiffbloke]

Oh God!! I didnt mean concrete /cement!!! in that sense... I meant exactly what you said.... Thanks for the tips... im already getting there..