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The Old House Remodeling Kitchens

Salvaging a vintage tile countertop

6 months ago

Hi,

I'm looking at a 50 year-old property in Sonoma county that needs some updating, including the kitchen. While the cabinets are cheap, dark oak veneers, the builder used Heath tiles (made in Sausalito, CA and very, very expensive to replace) for both the countertop and backsplash. The tiles are stunning in person, but the cabinets are in terrible shape and poorly configured for the tight space.

My question is, can you salvage the countertop or tiles? Removing them individually would be time consuming and risky that you would loose a percentage of them. I haven't been able to find any info on removing and reusing a countertop (other than granite countertops). Anyone with experience in remodeling or salvaging old tile?

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Comments (6)

chispa
6 months ago
last modified: 6 months ago
Not worth it. I ripped out tile counters in 5 bathrooms in my previous Spanish style house and they were very well attached to the substrate and a mess to remove.

Tile only has value to the person that paid for them and had them installed! Fifty years ago this was a more common material in CA homes and not as expensive.

If you are removing the cabinets, wouldn't you want to consider the best layout, instead of being stuck with one from the 1970s?
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HALLETT & Co.
6 months ago
99% of the time no you will not be able to salvage the tile. I’ve had one job where the tiles all came off cleanly due to a weird install technique. If they are properly bonded you have almost no chance of success. You could build new cabinets into the existing frames I guess, or remove it section by section and install ikea cabinets flush to the underside? Cabinet technology has gotten so much better over the last 50 years I wouldn’t want to be tied to the old layout.
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Thanks---yes, we have the same griddle setup as circuspeanut in the center, and do use it as a form of counter space, which is nice. So it's true that we're not completely giving it up until/unless we actually replace the range. And assuming we keep it, which we're leaning strongly towards right now, one of my summer projects is to rewire it so we can plug it in (right now it shorts out the kitchen!) I keep waiting for the rains to stop so I can take it outside and take it apart---usually May is safe, but this year there's still rain in the forecast, so I'm really glad we didn't decide to start the remodel a couple months earlier! We don't plan to have any uppers on the wall with the range, just hanging things behind it, so it isn't too much of an issue on that front. And while we could end the run with the stove, DH is not enthused about walking into the kitchen to have the stove immediately next to you, and we do like having counter to the right of it as right-handed cooks. However, we could definitely make this a freestanding piece vs. a built-in cabinet, which would get around the locking-in-the-size issue and have an added benefit of being a better workaround for one of the funky CA codes with access to gas lines than our current solution. I'd just want to be sure we had storage space in the piece, if so. I'll have to look around---we have a cheap Ikea butcher block there that does the job, but has really taken a beating in the three years we've had it. @farmhousebound and circuspeanut, I see you both have vent hoods that are (or look?) the same width as your stoves---do you find that a problem at all? Buehl's post reminded me that we still haven't figured that issue out. I'd been advised to get one 6" wider, but there seems to be a somewhat limited selection in 42" widths....maybe we don't really need that, especially as the O&M is only 34" anyway? Doesn't help with the dilemma at hand, but something else I'd been wondering! We're coming from no venting whatsoever, so it's hard to know where to start on that.
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Pllog, Well, we are in both in CA, as some would say! ;) I do agree with your comment about granite being the standard because of its perception as being a luxury item. FrmrsDghtr, WOW!!! Love what you were able to do!!! RosySunnyGal, Our counters are Floating Blue which is a mostly turquoise in white cement matrix color. We were able to pick our slabs at the factory when it was still here in the Bay Area years ago. We have several KDs in our area that had samples of Vetrazzo, Icestone and Fuez to look over. IF you are looking for the wow factor, these will do it. With that in mind, I do recommend that you really like your countertop color because it is a very prominent part of your kitchen. They also aren't cheap and I highly recommend that your installer be someone who knows how to work with this material. Our installation fabricators claimed they did and we had multiple problems with them that we finally had to hire a second company to fix. We looked at all of the green countertop materials, and this was the one that my DH and I were able to agree on despite the price. BTW, I don't include quartz or C-stone in this category. I do recommend that you do an online search for recycled glass companies because there are several others besides the three I mention above. The ones that I have ran across are: Gilasi in the Chicago area, Urbanslabs in SoCal, Vetrazzo is now in the Atlanta area, and more that I have seen around the US. I do recommend if you can using one that is near you because of the weight and shipping cost of the slabs. If you are interested in knowing more or seeing some pictures of my counters, please, PM me.
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palimpsest
6 months ago
You might be able to make a table top from a section of the countertop by bordering it with wood or metal.
artemis78
6 months ago
You might be able to salvage some on the walls depending on how they're installed, but I'd also consider whether you want a tile counter in the new kitchen (and if so, whether you want this particular tile) before spending too much energy on it. If you're set on Heath tiles, you can also buy the seconds in Sausalito at a good discount.
Susie .
6 months ago
Tile usually only comes up easily if they aren’t correctly installed, although you may be able to save the backsplash, depending on the installation. Sometimes they come off the drywall easily. You could try with a small pry bar, or try to slip a putty knife behind them to see how easily they come up. My guess is that if they’ve been there for 50 years, they’re set to well to make it easy. Sorry. I love Heath tiles, also.
mojavemaria
6 months ago
We just took out my sons tile countertops by cutting it in sections and removing it with most of the tiles intact and attached to the plywood substrate. Perhaps you could use a concrete blade on a skillsaw or grinder and try cutting the top in sections along the grout lines and then carefully pry the tile/substrate assembly off base cabinets.

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