how to remove peel and stick tile

What You Need to Know About Peel-and-Stick Tile

Installing tile can be intimidating for any DIYer regardless of skill or experience. It takes time, money, tools and patience to get your backsplash, floor or bathroom wall tile just right. If you're hesitant to take the traditional tiling plunge, then maybe you've wondered about peel-and-stick tile. Here's what you need to know about peel-and-stick tile to decide if it's the right DIY project for you.

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Water and Peel-and-Stick (Sometimes) Don't Mix

Many folks have a concern that self-adhering tile will lose in a war with water. In reality, most tile is designed to stay stuck in humid, occasionally wet environments. The greatest concern is for the spaces where one tile meets the other because peel-and-stick requires no grout (yay!), but that leaves a tiny vulnerable space for water (nay). If you want to take extra precaution, you can apply a sealant specially formulated for peel-and-stick tile. This water-vulnerability also means you need to be careful with how you clean your peel-and-stick tile. For traditional tile, be sure to choose the right tile backer board.

Already have some water damage that needs repair? Don't sweat it.

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Tile Over Existing Tile

If you don't want to have to deal with removing an entire floor or backsplash before re-tiling, then you're in luck. As long as you prepare your existing surface well, you can place most peel-and-stick tiles over existing surfaces. Do keep in mind that some peel-and-stick tiles will only adhere well when the grout lines are filled in to be flush with the existing tile. If the surface isn't as flat as possible, the peel-and-stick tile will adhere to all the nooks and crannies resulting in an uneven and gap-prone finished product. Learn how to tile over existing tile here.

Grouting is easy, albeit messy, when you follow these steps.

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Floor Tile Only for the Confident

Self-sticking floor tile has a reputation for being either totally awesome or the cautionary tale of what never to do. Look through the reviews online and you're going to read praise like: "I've never had any issues", and "My bathroom has had this kind of tile for three kids and everything is perfect." You're also going to see criticism like: "The tiles started curling up after three weeks and the sticky part attracted crumbs and my socks," or "I wish I wouldn't have laid peel-and-stick tile in my home's high-traffic areas." Bottom line: Make certain you have the kind of floor surface that can be a solid, successful surface for peel-and-stick tile. Prefer the traditional floor tiling method? Read these tips for tiling a bathroom floor.

Pro grout? Here's how to grout like a pro!

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Originally Published: February 28, 2019