Unpopular opinion: my contractor cousin saved my bathroom by telling me to stop tearing out the tile first

Anna Ward · 2026-09-24T23:40:03.564106+00:00

So back in April I started a full gut of my only bathroom in a 1958 ranch outside Akron. Day one I had the sledgehammer out and was about to start swinging at the wall tile when my cousin (30 yrs in the trade) walked in and just stared at me. He said if I busted that 4 inch tile first, I would wreck the mud bed behind it and turn a $2,200 job into a $6,000 one. He made me start at the vanity and the drywall instead, and sure enough the tile peeled off in whole sheets once the wall behind it was gone. Two Saturdays of work instead of two weeks. If you are about to demo a bathroom in an older house, do NOT touch the tile until you know what is holding it up. Has anyone else had a gut job go sideways because of the order they did the demo?

Vivisector

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Unpopular opinion: my contractor cousin saved my bathroom by telling me to stop tearing out the tile first | Bathroom Remodeling - Vivisector