How to remove tile from a concrete floor (and the thin-set under it)

To remove tile from a concrete floor, chisel it up, then deal with what's left underneath. The tile is the easy part. Most of the work is the hard gray thin-set mortar that stays stuck to the slab.

This guide is part of our cutting hub. For how tile and concrete behave under tools, see the porcelain tile and concrete and brick pages.

First: could it be asbestos?

Ceramic and porcelain tile set in gray thin-set is the common case, and it's what the rest of this guide covers.

What's under your tile?

Pry up one broken tile and look. What you find decides the tools.

Steps: tile set in thin-set

1. Prep the room

1. Take out baseboards, toilet and doors. Stuff a rag in the toilet drain and tape over floor drains.
2. Hang plastic over doorways and turn off the forced-air system, so dust doesn't travel.
3. Plan where the debris goes. Tile is heavy, so use a bucket or half-fill heavy bags.

2. Make a starting edge

1. Pick a cracked tile, or one by a doorway.
2. Lay a towel over it and break it with a hand sledge.
3. Pull out the pieces. You now have an edge to get a chisel under.

3. Chisel the tile up

1. Put a wide SDS-plus tile chisel in a rotary hammer. Bosch's HS1465, for example, is 1-1/2 inches wide and 10 inches long. Bosch rates it for rotary hammers and demolition hammers and shapes it to pry tile off in one piece.
2. Set the hammer to hammer-only (chisel) mode. Turning the bit will just dig holes.
3. Hold the chisel at a low angle, nearly flat. Aim it at the thin-set layer under the tile, not down into the slab.
4. Work along a row. Let the tool hit; you just steer.
5. Mist the floor with water as you go. OSHA's silica rule for jackhammers and chipping tools calls for water sprayed at the point of impact. For pros working indoors, it also calls for a respirator (APF 10). Wear one.

4. Remove the leftover thin-set

1. Knock the high ridges off with the same chisel, still low.
2. Grind the rest with a diamond cup wheel on an angle grinder. Use a dust shroud hooked to a vacuum with a 99%-efficient (HEPA) filter, or keep the area wet. That matches OSHA's Table 1 controls for handheld grinders.
3. Vacuum as you go, so you can see what's left.

Not sure which wheel to buy? Our angle grinder disc guide explains cup wheels. If your diamond wheel starts to cut slowly, it may be glazed. The fix is in how to sharpen a diamond blade.

5. Check flatness and clean up

1. Lay a long straightedge (a 10-foot board or level) across the floor in several directions.
2. For new tile, tile standards (ANSI A108.02) allow 1/4 inch of variation in 10 feet when all tile edges are under 15 inches. For tile with an edge 15 inches or longer, it's 1/8 inch in 10 feet. Grind high spots and fill low spots with a patch product made for that.
3. Clean with a HEPA vacuum or a wet mop. OSHA bars dry sweeping and compressed air where they would raise silica dust.

If that didn't work

• Tile breaks into small chips instead of popping off. The bond is strong. Lower the chisel angle, use the widest chisel you have and work from the open edge in.
• The chisel keeps gouging the slab. You're too steep. Drop the handle. Fill deep gouges with a patch product before the new floor goes in.
• The thin-set won't grind off. Switch to a coarser cup wheel, or rent a walk-behind floor grinder with a vacuum for a big room.
• You hit a thick mortar bed. A rotary hammer will be slow. Rent a demolition hammer, or call a demo crew.
• Tile pops off easily in one area. It was poorly bonded. That's fine, but check the slab there for cracks or moisture before you retile.
• Hand tools only? A brick set or cold chisel and a hand sledge work for a few tiles. Keep the chisel low, wear gloves and eye protection, and expect slow going.

When to call a pro

• Any test shows asbestos, or you can't test and the floor is old vinyl or has black adhesive.
• The tile sits on electric floor heat or a mortar bed thicker than your tools can handle.
• The slab under the tile is cracked, heaving or wet.

Once the slab is clean, you can tile again. See how to cut tile without a wet saw for the cuts and the best drill bit for porcelain tile for holes in the new floor.

If you're deciding which tool to rent, our hammer drill vs rotary hammer vs impact driver guide explains the difference. For leftover construction glue, see how to remove construction adhesive. Running a rotary hammer far from an outlet? Size the cord with our extension cord gauge calculator.

What you'll need

• SDS-plus rotary hammer with a hammer-only setting: Rent one for a big room; a demolition hammer suits thick mortar beds
• SDS-plus tile chisel, about 1-1/2 in wide: Wide, flat and angled to slide under tile
• Hand sledge and cold chisel or brick set: For edges, corners and a few loose tiles
• Long-handled floor scraper: For tile that pops loose and for soft adhesive
• Angle grinder, diamond cup wheel and dust shroud: With a HEPA or 99%-filter vacuum, for leftover thin-set
• Spray bottle or pump sprayer: Keeps dust down while you chip
• Safety glasses, hearing protection, knee pads, heavy gloves: Tile shards are as sharp as glass
• Respirator (half-face with P100 filters, or N95 at least): Silica dust
• Heavy contractor bags or a bucket: Tile is heavy; don't overfill bags

Questions people ask

Change log: Nov 6, 2026: Rewritten from the 2023 archive post at a new URL. Added the asbestos check, OSHA silica controls, the tile chisel spec, thin-set removal and flatness targets; removed the generic demolition-hammer buying tips.