We have aroud 700 sf of tile in the house that we'll be replacing...starting with the kitchen last night.
LOML beat on grout lines with a hammer while I followed with a shovel to break loose the tiles that weren't already. Cheap (not only inexpensive, but 'cheap' tile) was originally put down with mastic over 3/4 OSB with 3/8 plywood for underlayment. Where it's still stuck, it's stuck very well...where it's broken and otherwise NOT stuck, it's pretty obvious I shoulda used more mastic.
This morning I will disassemble the little kitchen island that I built in place on top of the tile...take up the baseboard, clean up the perimieter tiles, and start scraping the mastic off the underlayment.
Hopefully this afternoon I'll be at least starting to put the Hardibacker down. With any kinda luck, I'll be putting new tile down Wednesday, so we can have the kicthen back by the weekend.
The kitchen is the only part that'll be tile again...the rest will be replaced with wood. Which, as I recall, is what I wanted to do to begin with many years ago....
KC