Demo Old Backsplash Tile & Plywood, step by step

In case all of that turkey and stuffing made you forget, allow me to remind you that our kitchen was looking something this after the upper cabinets came down:

Since the clock was ticking on our new counters (in around 2 weeks we should no longer be sink-less and counter-less), we had to get the walls prepped for the new backsplash. Not that the backsplash would be going up before the counters (we will get a snugger fit if we install it afterwards, plus we do not want it getting damaged during the whole counter install), but because wall prep = demo (aka: a mess) we did not want to worry about scratching our new counters if they were in during that step. So it was time to say adieu to the old “random blue things” backsplash:

We have a weird soft spot for this old backsplash. It is kinda quirky, and feels quite handmade. But it also feels all wrong for our idea of a dream kitchen – and the penny tile that we found had us at hello. We keep saying that the existing backsplash seems more suited to an adobe style home in the Southwest, but since we are softies, we have an idea to keep a few of the accent tiles around for old time’s sake (more on that in a bit).

When it came to the whole removal process, it went ok. Some of it even came down in 3 or 4 (or 6!) tile chunks at a time. And all it took was a swift pry of the screwdriver.

But then again, most of it came out one-by-one… or in chipped pieces and broken chunks. Still, I cannot complain. It was perhaps a 45 minute job from beginning to end? I did about 80% of it (Sherry loves demo too, but she was on Clara duty after she woke up from a wish-it-was-longer nap).

We hoped to save a bunch of the blue tiles for nostalgia’s sake, and in fact came up with the idea of adding little felt feet to make them into coasters (could be lively to tell people about their past whenever we break them out), but these three were the only ones that survived in one piece:

Kinda sad, but three coasters are better than none – so we are thankful for these lucky three survivors. Still a little bummed that we could not donate more whole tiles to the ReStore or give a few of the lively blue ones to friends of ours who requested ’em though. They were simply so brittle (they were made from red clay) so they shattered and collapsed truly easily. Our three survivors were kind of miraculous.

Oh, but to make sure that we never forget the other random blue tiles that graced our now-gone backsplash, we threw together this little tribute video. You may want to have a box of tissues handy…

Sorry. That was simply us being weird. Sort of like this bow-chicka-bow-wow console video from a while back. Cannot assist ourselves.

But back to the serious stuff: the rest of the kitchen demo. As you saw in the video, here is what the room looked like sans tile. Fairly ugly and not exactly ready for the new backsplash.

Between the plentiful bumpy leftover glue and the fact that plywood is not an ideal surface for holding tile in the first place (especially the weight of penny tile all the way to the ceiling along the stove wall) we resigned ourselves to the fact that we should likely demo it out and replace it with something more suitable. Sigh.

So we called The Tile Shop (they’ve fairly much been our go-to resource for tiling ever since we asked them a million questions while we gutted and retiled our bathroom a few years back) and they confirmed that we truly ought to install cement board. We had a mild panic attack when we realized that the counter folks templated against the 1/4″ thick plywood walls (so if our cement board was any thicker or sat too low on the wall, our counters might not fit correctly). Thank goodness they in fact sell 1/4″ cement board, so we can seamlessly sub out plywood for cement board without affecting the counters.

But I still had the challenge of cutting the plywood along a straight seam right above the lower cabinets, so it could be pried off the wall and replaced with cement board. I do not truly own a strong tool for this, but I figured my Dremel Trio was my best shot since I could control the depth at which it cut (since I hoped to cut through the full depth of the 1/4″ plywood, but not the studs behind it) – which I am demonstrating in the photo below:

Though had I seen the commercial that I saw the quite next night for this thing I likely would’ve picked up it as an early Christmas present to myself. Oh well, you know we like to use what we have.

My main struggle with the Dremel Trio is that it is not quite steady when cutting. Since it cuts using a spinning motion, it constantly wants to spin off in distinct directions. So I fashioned a makeshift guide by loosely nailing a piece of scrap wood into the wall. This way I could press the Dremel against it as I pushed it along the wall, keeping my cut perfectly straight:

Well, straight sufficient. Oh and I turned off the power to the kitchen (and used an extension cord from another room to power my Dremel) even though I was only cutting the depth of the plywood – simply in case there was a wire in my path. Luckily all wires were a lot deeper into the wall, so I did not come close to anything with my shallow cuts.

It took me a bit longer than I’d like to admit to make all of my cuts (perhaps 90 minutes?) because of having to move (and double-check) my guide placement. But once I had sliced the plywood, it was straightforward to pry it off of the wall from there.

See? Look how fast I am moving now. Oh wait, these photos are not time stamped…

I did hit one other speed bump when I realized that I needed to remove the trim from around the window (it was nailed in on top of the plywood).

This also meant removing the last remaining piece of granite in our kitchen: the window sill. But like its granite-y brethren before it, we simply had to slice its caulk seal and pry it away. Straightforward peasy. We will replace it with a regular old white wood sill like we had right above the sink in our first kitchen (white Corian would have been pleasant, but we are too low-cost for that, and semi-gloss paint on a wood sill holds up nicely in our experience).

Voila. So long granite. Sayonara plywood.

So there we have it: all of the demo’s officially done. And our kitchen is officially looking more disastrous than ever:

Not that where we began before demo was much to look at anyway:

Next up is the lively part. Okay, not truly. Next up is hanging the new cement board walls along with some leftover paneling from the wall-opening project on either side of the window (since that wall will not be tiled all the way to the ceiling and we want it to match the rest of the painted paneling in the room). And I am going to be real here: this is not a process that I think we will particularly enjoy (at least we did not when my dad helped us do it in our old bathroom). But it must be done. And it also must be blogged about, so stay tuned for all the details as we go. In the meantime, I’d enjoy to hear what you folks did around the house this weekend. Any tile stuff or demo going on? Does anyone have a lively demo story for us?