Tile Counter Tear Out

Demolition Is Where the Job Is Decided

Removing a tile countertop is straightforward work. Understanding what you have exposed is not, and that is the part worth paying somebody for.

We arrive expecting one of two builds. The older one, common in Riverside houses put up before the mid seventies, is a mortar bed poured over wire lath on a plywood deck. It is thick, it is heavy, and it comes off in chunks. The newer one is tile set in thinset over cement backer board, which lifts more cleanly but is often screwed through into a deck that has been ignored for thirty years.

The First Ten Minutes

Before a hammer comes out, the sink base gets opened and we look up. The underside of the deck around the sink cutout is the single most informative square foot in the kitchen. We are reading for dark tannin staining, for a spongy response under thumb pressure, for fasteners weeping rust, and for the tell tale swollen edge where particleboard has taken on water and never dried.

At the same time we measure the existing counter height and the dishwasher opening. This sounds fussy. It is not. A poured bed with tile on it can stand an inch and a half proud of the cabinet tops, and the replacement assembly, three quarter inch deck plus a three centimetre slab, will finish lower. Dishwashers that were shimmed to suit the old height need attention at reconnection, and finding that out in advance is free.

Protecting What Stays

Cabinet faces get masked, floors get covered, and the run gets sheeted before demolition starts. Grout and mortar dust travels a long way and is unpleasant to live with. In summer here the natural instinct is to open everything up and let the Santa Ana air pull the dust out, which works right up until it deposits fine grit across the rest of the house. We use containment and take it out in bags instead.

Backsplash tile is its own item. Where it was set on drywall rather than backer board, and much of it was, the tile brings the paper face off with it. That leaves a wall requiring patching, skim and paint before a new splash or slab return can go on. We quote it as a line item up front rather than presenting it as an unforeseen extra, because it is entirely foreseeable.

What Comes Off With It

The old deck usually leaves with the tile. Once fasteners are pulled and the sheet is cut free of the cabinet rails, it lifts as a unit or in sections. That gives us open cabinet boxes to work with, and it is the only moment in the project when the rails, the corner joints and the levelling of the run are all visible at once. We use it. Boxes get checked for square, rails get inspected for rot at the sink bay, and the whole run gets a level laid across it.

Then We Stop

At that point demolition ends and you get a call, with photographs, before anything else is bought or cut. If the deck is dry and the boxes are sound, the job proceeds straight to a new deck and templating and the repair allowance drops off the quote. If there is real rot at the sink bay or a rail that has given way, you hear the actual scope and the actual figure while the kitchen is open and the decision is still yours to make.

Haul away is included. Mortar bed debris is heavy and there is a lot more of it than people expect, so it is not something to plan on putting in a household bin.

Call (951) 702-1038 to book a look at what is under yours.