Tile Removal & Floor Prep in Chicago, IL

What’s included

Materials we work with

Taking up the old tile

Old tile can be bonded to concrete, a wood subfloor, a cement underlayment or an earlier tile layer, and each comes up differently. We remove tile and setting material in sections and look at the floor as it opens up. Loose pieces, cracks and the perimeter show how the old floor was built.

Door casings, cabinets, pipes, floor registers and fixed appliances are handled one at a time. They limit access and decide how the new tile edge will finish.

Dust

Breaking tile and grinding mortar makes fine dust. Before we start, we plan barriers to the adjoining rooms, protected paths for tools and materials, and covers for nearby surfaces. Collection equipment and steady cleanup cut down how far the dust travels, but no method stops all of it.

Tell us beforehand about access needs, pets, belongings that need protecting and any rooms that will be in use, so the setup fits the house.

Thinset, mastic and adhesive

Floors are usually set in thinset mortar. Some walls and floors have mastic or another adhesive instead. Ridges, hard lumps of mortar, weak patches and adhesive film can spoil the bond, the flatness or the final height of the new tile. How much has to come off depends on the surface below and the products used for the new tile.

We scrape, chip or grind until the base is sound and will take the next layer. If the floor is still uneven after that, we patch or flatten it. Tile mortar is not used to fill wide dips.

Checking the substrate

With the old floor gone, we check for movement, flatness, cracks, damaged sections, moisture, contamination and changes in height. Concrete, plywood, OSB, cement board and old underlayments each need different prep. We can only report what we can see or reach during the work.

Setting tile straight over a cracked slab, a wood floor that moves or a deteriorated underlayment does not fix it. Where moisture or the structure is in question, further testing may be needed before the new tile is planned.

Flattening and self-leveling underlayment

A floor can slope toward a drain on purpose, but it still has to meet the flatness the tile and setting method call for. We take down high spots, patch low areas and chipped concrete, or pour a self-leveling underlayment where the unevenness covers a wider area.

Self-leveling underlayment needs a prepared surface, primer, edge control and a thickness within the product’s limits, and it will not fix a subfloor that moves. It also has to work with any membrane, mortar or floor heating that goes on top.

Transitions and floor height

The new floor has to meet doorways, stairs, cabinets and the flooring in the next room. Existing height, underlayment thickness, tile thickness and the edge profile together decide how it meets them, so we work this out during prep, before the field tile goes in.

Walls may be out of square, openings may be off center, and a wood, carpet or resilient floor next door may sit higher or lower. Trims, reducers and thresholds are chosen for each meeting point, with room left for movement joints at the perimeter.

Before the new tile goes down

Right before setting, we check the base again for high spots, weak material, debris and unsupported edges, and recheck layout lines, drains and transition points. Keep other trades, stored materials and anything that could spill off the prepared floor. If later work changes the floor, it gets checked again before tile is set.

What changes the scope

The number of old layers, how hard the old mortar or adhesive holds, access, the subfloor type, damage, the dust setup, the amount of leveling and the transitions all change the job. Some of that only shows once part of the floor is open. An estimate that lists removal, substrate repair, leveling and installation separately is easier to compare than one line for “prep.”