Plate on white round table with stools placed on tiled floor near green potted plant and counter with sink and wooden cupboards in dining room

How to Replace Kitchen Tile Floor

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The Materials You’ll Need

Replacing old tile flooring is a time-consuming and laborious task. It can be done with hand tools, but we strongly recommend purchasing or hiring power tools for the job. Hiring tools like a demolition hammer can save dozens of hours of work and dramatically improve the quality of the finished product.

At the minimum you will need:

  • Gloves, goggles and breathing protection
  • Tile adhesive
  • Notched trowel
  • Grout removal tools
  • Floor scraper
  • Hammer
  • Chisel
  • Grout float
  • Grout mix
  • Bucket and sponge
  • Replacement floor tiles

Don’t scrimp on the PPE when removing old floor tiles. Grout dust, tile chips and tile adhesive can all be extremely harmful when inhaled. Gloves are also especially important. Pieces of broken tile can be as sharp as glass, so avoid handling old tiles with your bare hands.

 

How to Replace a Kitchen Tile Floor

Installing new kitchen floor tiles is a fairly involved process. It’s not especially difficult though, so it can be a DIY-friendly job if you don’t mind hard work. To replace your kitchen tile floors, you will need to:

  1. Remove a section of the old grout. Before you can pry up the old surface, go around and remove the grout from between the tiles. This can be done with a grout removal tool, a utility knife or an angle grinder and a grout removal blade. You don’t need to remove all the grout at this stage. You only need to scrape up the grout around the first few tiles you plan to remove.
  1. Remove old tiles. Once you’ve removed the grout around a few tiles, use a chisel and a hammer to pry the tile away from the surface. The tiles should come away relatively easily. If you can’t get the chisel under a tile then you may need to choose a different place to start. Continue this process until all the tiles have been removed. You may need to use a sledgehammer to break stubborn tiles that can’t be pried off the floor.
  1. Clean up the subfloor. This is the most time-consuming part of replacing an old tile floor. To ensure your new tiles sit flat against the ground, you’ll need to chip away the old grout and tile adhesive. This can be done manually using a floor scraping tool. Angle the scraper close to the floor and then use it to chip away at the old adhesive. If you’re working on a large kitchen then we recommend using power tools such as a demolition hammer with a floor scraping attachment.
  1. Repair any subfloor damage. Old subfloors are rarely in perfect condition. Before laying new tiles you’ll need to repair any damage:
  • For plywood subfloors you can simply replace damaged sections of floor
  • For hardwood floors you need to replace any boards that are rotting, warped or splintering
  • For concrete floors you can use a self-levelling product to fill cracks, gouges and low spots
  • For fibre cement tile underlayment you should replace any damaged sheets and recaulk the seams between panels
  1. Install tile underlayment. It’s a good idea to install a tile underlayment product on floors that don’t already have one. Tile underlayment is a type of fibre cement board that controls moisture and minimises imperfections in the floor.
  2. Dry lay your new tiles. The process of “dry laying” tiles allows you to test your new tile layout before committing to the installation. We strongly recommend dry laying tiles during DIY projects so you can plan your workflow and double check that there are no problems that need to be fixed.
  3. Install new tiles. You can finally begin installing your new tiles! Once you’re happy with your dry layout, pick a corner of the room and begin installing the new tiles. Apply a thick coating of tile adhesive to the back of each tile and to the subfloor using a notched trowel. Carefully press the tile into the adhesive and use tile spacers to ensure it’s positioned correctly. Repeat this process until all your tiles have been laid. You may need to use a tile cutter to create smaller tiles for oddly shaped areas of the floor.
  1. Grout the joints. Once you have allowed the new tile adhesive to dry for 24-48 hours, you can begin applying grout. Using a grout float and damp sponge, work the grout into each joint and then clean away excess grout with the sponge. Allow the grout to dry to a haze before using a clean, damp sponge to buff away the residue.