Saving tile on bathroom floor

I have some tiles in a half bath that have sunk down with the flooring after a toilet flange ruptured. Since these tiles will be hard to match, I would like to remove them intact if possible and put them back on a new subfloor. Is there a proper way to do this or am I out of luck? (they are ceramic and 4" square, with a small 1" square laid in on the corners)

 

Removing tile to save them is pretty much futile. It's very hit and miss at best. But if your subflooring has warped or sunk away, it may have given you a fighting chance. If so, you'd want to remove as much grout from the perimeters as possible in hopes of popping the tile up in one piece. You want to get the edges 100% free before you start to pry or chisel underneath. And you'd work at chiselling the bottom of the thinset... not the bottom of the tile itself. Because the minute your chisel prys on the tile you're likely to crack it in half. (Or more pieces)

 

Thanks for your reply Mr XSleeper. If this half bath/Shower hadn't all been done in the same tile (floors and shower walls, It wouldn't even be an issue. I would just replace all the tile in the room with the toilet, but the shower could use an upgrade too. I will see if the tiles that are sagging with the subfloor come off in any usable shape at all. The Pilot tells me that I have to get the floor joists and subfloor rock solid before the toilet gets put back anyway. Lord give me strength!

 

Ive had tiles that when removed simply popped off the mortar/CBU bed so you wont know till you try!

 

An issue I had with the shower drain a few years ago, I know that that if there ever was a waterproof catch diaphragm under the shower tiles, it had disintegrated years ago. I see that I have some work to do with the grout in there too. I would think that to put a new diaphragm under floor that the tile will have to come out of there too. Never put one of those in before. Guessing that a catcher will have to be plumbed into the shower drain pipe?

 

Pan liners are incorporated into the drain, yes. It takes a special type of drain.

 

That is probably why the cheap builder didn't put one in. I made a wider hole in the ceiling than the FIRST leak made so I could see under the shower floor. Nothing special about the drain that I could see then. I will google shower drain pan and see what they are supposed to look like. Maybe some good Karma will come my way if I protect the new owner by putting one in now....

 

They don't look unusual from underneath. But from above they have a plate that goes over the pan liner..

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/s...8eNVICXpeKVI2A

And the drain is typically adjustable in height for the tile.

 

From look of the drain pan liner I saw on Google. It appears that the tile must be fastened to some type of stiff board that then rests on the flexible drain pan? The floor drain in the pic you sent me must have openings in it for any water that might get past the tiles? If I have one (a drain pan) it must be rotted out. I would assume that If I had new tile laid in the shower, that a pro would put a new Plastic liner. some type of board that would support the tile, and then the tiles themselves?