First, Rob carefully pries the tile away from the wall using a putty knife and hammer. Some pieces are stuck on more than others but 75%-plus come off without a chip:

Once the tile is off the wall, I scrape all the old mastic, mortar and gritty whatnot off the whole pieces with another putty knife and put them in the ‘clean’ tile box; we may be reusing it:

It’s all fairly painstaking and slow- going work. After two or so hours:

Also, an update on the hydrogen peroxide tile cleaning test- it didn’t work. New tile cleaning test (based on a suggestion from a loyal blog reader!): Muratic acid!

It’s definitely fizzing a lot- will keep you posted on the results!