Tips for taking up/lifting quarry tiles?

[Erin]

Can anyone offer any advice regarding the best tools/techniques for lifting quarry tiles without cracking them or damaging their edges? The tiles appear to be set in a lime mortar and do not come up easily.

(To clarify, we're doing this to restore our kitchen floor. A previous owner replaced some tiles with a concrete patch after laying new pipework. Fortunately, we just discovered the floor of the now-demolished scullery under a thin layer of concrete to the rear of the house. We've removed the concrete and are hoping to take up the tiles of the former scullery floor to repair the kitchen floor.)

 

[middi]

The tiles bedded in lime mortar should be reasonably easy to lift by using a wide bolster chisel and tapping just below the lower edge of the tile at about 75/80 degree approach angle. Losses should be minimal.

As to the ones bedded in cement, if they have been fitted using a wet strong cement mix, and using the same method as before, you could loose a very high percentage.

There isn't a scientific formula for lifting quarry tiles ( as far as we are concerned anyway), nearly every application is adhered to its base by different strength.

Usually a carefull approach using as much force as needed based on common sense without causing much damage is about all you can do.

Good luck.