Hi,

I've been following GW forums off/on for years now, but currently find myself in need of some of the expert advice available here.

I'll post drawings and pictures later, but the short story is...we are doing a complete gut and renovation of an approx 160 ft2 master bathroom (nearly completely tiled in white, with colored accents). We are also changing the entry to the closet from the MBR to the bath, so several doorways get altered. The tile and fixtures are pretty well determined (we are going to a tan/rust accents porcelain tile), and are into day 4 of the demo.

We're hoping to get to the floor demo tomorrow....which is what is causing me to make this post. The tiles (mostly 6 inch, with 2 inch accent tiles) are set on a wet bed, which has to be removed. Now this is no normal wet bed. My GC at the time - great fellow - loved him - did not have experience with electric floor heat, and didn't coordinate his installation with the tile guys. This meant that once he laid down the wires on top of the wet bed, the tile guys had a heart attack and said they couldn't place tile on top of that, but had to embed it in more mud. This was after we had the GC lower the studs in the shower area so that we could have a curbless entry (my MIL was coming to stay with us, and was in a wheelchair at the time).

So....more mud was laid to embed the wires, and the floor got higher and higher....to the point where we had to build mini-ramps into the room to allow a wheelchair to be rolled into/out of the room (plus keep us from stubbing our toes every time). (The ramp into the bedroom was very gradual and was disguised under carpet).

Our goal is to rip out all of the mudbed (the entire 160 ft2 is tile!) and start over. I'd like to do it with a minimum of screaming and crying (and nothing larger than a band-aid needed for injuries!)

I've read here and on the John Bridge forum several suggestions as to how to do this, minimizing the dust in the process. However, I'm not sure I see a consensus.....plus I'm not sure which cool tool I need to rent/let DH purchase. Do I use a chipping/demolition hammer or an air hammer, or just brute force? I think I did see that a saw would cause the most dust, and I feel like our house is dirty enough as it is. I will have two strong teen boys at the ready tomorrow to start this, so brute force is OK...

BTW, the reason why I was insane to use white tile/grout is the fact that we are on a well with lots of iron. Despite treating the water, we have lived with an orange tint in the shower for years now. That's why I chose a slightly orange tile....:)

Thanks in advance for your help! I'll post pictures soon....

Peggy