We removed ceramic tile by ourselves and it was very messy and time consuming. I would suggest having your tile removed first, before having the rest of your kitchen remodeled.
Below, I've attached a link that described our experience including some pictures.

-Laurie

Here is a link that might be useful: Removing Ceramic Tile

No need to remove your ceramic tile, if you're going to cover with a different decorative surface product, such as sheet vinyl, linoleum, vinyl tiles and similar.

We remove lots of ceramic. Much easier when on a slab in our opinion. air chisel and we normally remove about 150 sq ft per hour is what we calculate. Drape off arch ways for dust. If your cabinets are out, it will be your one chance to remove it the rest of your life..Embossing over the old tile is fine, but if you have a shot to take it out...I would ask why not...but you have to have the right equipment. Just an opinion.

Thanks, all. I think we'll go for it. I'd really like new tile.

hello:

i was lurking around the flooring forum and decided to pop into this thread to ask a related question. my boyfriend and i are replacing an entire 3100sq ft (minus bathrooms and possibly laundry room) with engineered floors. currently, there is carpet in most of the house (bedrooms/family room/living room/dining room--gross), but there's maybe 1000 sq ft of ceramic 12x12 tile in other areas.

once we've chiseled out all the tile, what's the best way to get rid of all the thinset? because we're installing the wood floors, we'd like the slab to be as level as possible. is removing the thinset as time consuming as chiseling the tile? do we really need to hire a professional, or is it something we could conceivably do on our own with the right tools? we don't have a lot of practice with handy-work (have been renters until now), but we're both quick learners.

thanks!

ladoladi - if you pick on the link below, you can read and see pictures of our DIY tile removal. Dh and I like to do things ourselves. It depends on how much time you want to invest. In our situation, we ended up renting a machine from Home Depot to help with the stubborn thinset. If you hire a professional they will get the job done much faster.
-Laurie

Here is a link that might be useful: Removing Ceramic Tile

Thank you! We are beginning this phase of the Reno next weekend so I will be back to tell you how awesomely (or awfully) it went. I called around and neither our lowes nor our home depot rents tools; we live in a small town. But I found an equipment rental place that has a roto-hammer. They said to use that because they don't have a floor grinder. Guess I will try to find a grinder before next weekend or chip away at everything with the rotohammer!

Don't forget...safety goggles, dust mask, hat, long pants, long sleeve shirt, & gloves. In our case, chips were flying & dust galore. Good luck to you and keep us posted !!
-Laurie