Should I continue to remove the cement board, or just remove the tiles

cement-boardtilingunderlayment

I'm in the middle of replacing the tile in my bathroom and started to take off the backer board but now I'm wondering if I should've just cleaned off the top of the boards and reused it. The backer board is nailed to the floor over thin set.

Both processes seem like a pain. Would you continue to take off the cement board or patch a 4'x6' area with new cement board and then scrape off the old tile's thin set on the rest of the surface?

Best Answer

I would probably attempt to just patch the one area and srape the rest off. Touch up with a grinder.

However, that depends on how intact the existing CBU remains after scraping off the tiles and thinset.

I would take the path of least resistance. If you try one way and it is taking way longer than the other way, switch.