apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I wanted to do the same thing in my bathroom and I was told there was no way without destroying the tiles, so I moved on to another more easily doable project. If anyone has a solution, I, too would love to hear.

advice for replacing old bathroom tile, if wall are tiled behind toilet tank, remove tank and gently remove those tiles, this method produced enough to replace all the damaged tiles from unnessary towel racks etc in my bath. perfect match, and who will know what is behind the toilet tank?

If these towel rings are applied by adhesive tape then you may be able to slide a very thin putty knife or a soft but cerrated plastic knife between the tile and the base of the towel ring and slowly cut through the adhesive. Then use dry ice or a heat gun to remove the excess sticky stuff from your tile. Avoid using chemical solvents or strippers which will damage your tile.

It's somewhat unlikely that those are glued. Usually, if you can't see mounting screws, there is a hidden mounting bracket behind the plate. In that case there would be a tiny allen-wrench screw recessed in the bottom of the bracket (it will look like a small hole, but closer inspection will reveal that the interior has a hex shape). If you're not used to putting things like this up, you might have missed it.

(I don't want to insult you intelligence, but I never assume that anyone automatically knows this stuff.)

If there is a bracket, you can look for accessories that use the same one.

If in fact they are glued...
Rather than a putty knife, try dental floss. You may want to use a hair dryer to heat up and loosen the adhesive...then use dental floss to "saw" through the adhesive. You can try to remove what's left with Goo Gone, or something similar.

(This technique is often used to remove emblams from cars.)

I don't think those are glued either. I have a similar problem with these protruding soap-dish holders in my shower, they constantly get in my way and I wanted to remove them. On closer inspection, it looked as if there must be some wall anchor type bracket holding them in, which means they probably drilled through the tile. I will check tonight though to see if there is an allen wrench hole on the base plate...so I'm glad I cam across this. Maybe I can replace the the soap-dish holders with less intrusive ones if I can get the plate off.

...and if they are glued, they are likely to be done with silicone adhesive or epoxy. In which case the adhesive won't respond to heat or things like Goo-Be-Gone. You'd probably do best to try to saw it off with floss (dentists have abrasive floss that's like sandpaper, but it might scratch the tile), or pry it off, and then find a repalcement with a larger mounting plate -- this time done with wall anchors -- to cover the residue on the tile.

Do you own this place? You might be able to find a replacement tile. It's not a big deal to chip out a tile and replace it. The grout blends well (best to take a piece of grout into a tile place and have them match it).

just dissolve the upper edge of the metal with a bit of acid to see what you actually have behind. once the metal is gone, you'll likely find epoxy, which can be ground off. oh , open the windows if you use acid.

Why use acid when a light saber will just slice it off. Helpful.