Tile Removal Cost in Perth: Prices per m², Process and What's Under Your Tiles

Quick answer: In Perth in 2026, floor tile removal typically costs $30–$50 per m² for tiles glued to a concrete slab, and $45–$75 per m² for tiles laid on a thick mortar or screed bed. Grinding the leftover adhesive off the slab usually adds $20–$30 per m² on a home-sized job. Stairs, tiled skirting and waste disposal are often priced separately.

Tiles last a long time. That's the problem. By the time most Perth homeowners decide the 1990s cream ceramics have to go, they've been stuck to the slab for 25 or 30 years, and getting them off is a bigger job than it looks.

This guide covers what tile removal really costs in Perth, what pushes the price up, what you'll find underneath, and what has to happen before a new floor can go down. It's written by Nulook Timber Flooring. We strip tiles out across Perth as day one of a new timber or hybrid floor, so we see what's under them every week.

Tile Removal Cost in Perth at a Glance

Job	Typical Perth price (2026)
Floor tiles glued to a concrete slab	$30–$50 per m²
Floor tiles on a mortar or screed bed	$45–$75 per m²
Wall tiles	$40–$50 per m²
Bathroom floor and wall tiles	$20–$50 per m², often with a minimum charge
Grinding adhesive off the slab afterwards	$20–$30 per m² (under 100 m²)
Tiled stair treads	$20–$40 per step
Tiled skirting	$10–$60 per linear metre
Waste disposal	Often included; otherwise $150–$850 per job

Ranges combine published 2026 WA price guides, including What's the Damage's Perth flooring cost table, with what we see on our own Perth jobs. Always check whether a quote includes GST.

What Changes the Price?

Two jobs of the same size can be priced very differently. Here's why.

How the tiles were laid

This is the big one. Tiles stuck to a slab with a thin layer of adhesive come up fairly cleanly. Tiles laid on a thick sand and cement bed (common in older Perth homes and some wet areas) mean breaking out the tiles and the bed underneath. That's slower, heavier and creates far more waste.

Tile type and size

Porcelain is harder and more brittle than ceramic, so it shatters into sharper pieces. Large-format tiles (600 x 600 mm and up) are often fully bedded in adhesive and take more effort to break free. Natural stone and slate are heavy and add to disposal weight.

Area and layout

Price per m² usually drops as the area grows. An open-plan 80 m² living area is cheaper per m² than a 6 m² laundry, because setup, travel and machine time spread further. Lots of small rooms, robes and toilets add time. So do kitchen kickboards, built-in cabinets and tiles that run under joinery, because every edge has to be cut back by hand rather than with a machine.

What's left behind

Removing tiles is only half the job if you're putting down a new floor. Glue ridges and bedding left on the slab will show through a floating floor and stop a glue-down floor from bonding. The slab needs to be ground back to clean concrete. Our guide to concrete grinding before new flooring explains what's involved.

Dust control

Breaking tiles and grinding adhesive creates fine dust containing crystalline silica. Safe Work Australia sets a strict exposure limit for it, so a professional crew should be using dust-extracted machines and H-class vacuums, not dry-cutting with an angle grinder. Proper extraction adds a little to the price and saves a lot of cleaning.

Access and waste

A ground-floor home with a driveway is quick to clear. An upstairs apartment with a small lift is not. Broken tile is heavy, and a 60 m² floor can produce a couple of tonnes of waste. Check whether your quote includes bagging, loading and disposal.

Asbestos

Ceramic and porcelain tiles themselves don't contain asbestos. But older vinyl tiles, sheet vinyl, some adhesives and old underlays can, and they're sometimes hiding under or beside the tiles. If your home was built before 1990 and anything looks suspect, it needs testing before removal starts. WorkSafe WA sets the rules on who can remove asbestos-containing flooring. See our guide to asbestos in old floor tiles in Perth.

A Worked Example: 60 m² Open-Plan Living Area

Here's a typical Perth job: a 1990s double-brick home, 60 m² of glued ceramic tiles on a slab, ready for engineered timber.

Item	Estimate
Tile removal (60 m² × $35–$50)	$2,100–$3,000
Grinding adhesive off the slab (60 m² × $20–$30)	$1,200–$1,800
Waste disposal (if not included)	$150–$850
Total before new flooring	about $3,300–$5,650

If the same tiles had been laid on a mortar bed, removal would be closer to $2,700–$4,500, and you'd likely need some self-levelling afterwards too. Our concrete floor levelling guide covers that cost.

These are illustrations, not quotes. The real number depends on what's under your tiles, and nobody knows that for sure until the first few come up.

What's Actually Under Perth Tiles?

Every tile removal job is a small archaeological dig. Here's what we commonly find:

• Thin-set adhesive on a slab. The best case. Tiles break off, the adhesive gets ground back, done.
• Sand and cement bedding. A 20–50 mm bed under the tiles, common in older homes and wet areas. It all has to come out, which can leave the floor lower than the rooms around it.
• Screed over the slab. A thin cement topping that may be cracked or drummy (hollow-sounding) underneath.
• Old vinyl or lino. Sometimes tiles were laid straight over older vinyl, which raises the asbestos question.
• Magnesite. Found in some 1950s–1970s Perth flats and older commercial buildings. It's a hard, pinkish or grey trowelled floor topping that reacts badly with moisture, and some magnesite contains asbestos. It needs testing and specialist removal.
• Cracks and patches. Shrinkage cracks, plumbing trenches and old repairs show up once the tiles are gone.

This is why we quote the strip-out first and the slab prep separately once we've seen the floor. Guessing at it is how "subject to site conditions" quotes end up thousands of dollars over.

What to Expect by Home Age in Perth

The era of your home is a decent guide to what you'll find, and to what the job might cost.

Home built	Common tile setup	What to watch for
Before 1970	Tiles on thick sand and cement beds, sometimes over Jarrah boards or magnesite	Heavy removal, possible asbestos in old vinyl, underlay or magnesite
1970s–1980s	Ceramic on mortar beds or early adhesives, vinyl tiles in kitchens and laundries	Test any vinyl, sheet flooring or black adhesive before disturbing it
1990s–2000s	Glazed ceramic glued to the slab, often cream or beige	Usually straightforward; expect adhesive ridges to grind off
2010s onwards	Large-format porcelain, fully bedded in adhesive	Harder to break free, sharp waste, more grinding

The 1990s project home is the most common job we see in Perth, and usually the cheapest per m² to strip.

Tiles on Timber Floors

Not every tiled floor sits on concrete. In older raised homes and some upstairs rooms, tiles are laid over fibre-cement sheeting or particleboard fixed to timber joists. Removing them is a gentler job: the tiles and sheeting are lifted together, and the timber underneath is checked for water damage, especially around old showers and laundries. Sometimes that sheeting is old enough to contain asbestos, so it gets tested first. Costs are similar per m², but expect extra for any subfloor repairs.

How Long Does Tile Removal Take?

For a typical Perth home:

• Bathroom or laundry: half a day to a day
• Kitchen and living area (40–60 m²): about a day
• Most of a single-storey home (80–120 m²): one to two days
• Grinding and clean-up afterwards: usually another half to full day

Tiles on mortar beds and large-format porcelain take longer. So does carrying waste down from an upstairs apartment.

Is It Better to Remove Tiles or Lay Over Them?

People ask this constantly, and it's one of Google's top questions on tile removal. The honest answer depends on the new floor.

• Glue-down engineered timber: remove the tiles. Adhesive needs to bond to clean concrete, not to glazed ceramic.
• Floating hybrid or laminate: it's sometimes possible over tiles that are flat, firmly stuck and in good condition. But it raises the floor by 7–15 mm, which can catch on doors, sliding tracks and thresholds. Any drummy tiles underneath will cause trouble later.
• New tiles over old tiles: possible in some cases, but adds height and weight. Most tilers prefer to remove.

Our timber flooring vs tiles comparison goes into choosing the new floor.

Will a Tiler Remove Old Tiles?

Some do, but many tilers would rather lay than demolish. Specialist strip-out companies and flooring installers like Nulook Timber Flooring do it as part of the job. If you're replacing tiles with timber or hybrid, having the flooring team do the strip-out avoids the classic problem: the removalist leaves the slab rough, and the floor layer blames them for the hollow spots.

Can You Remove Tiles Yourself?

You can, and plenty of Perth homeowners save money doing a bathroom or small laundry themselves. For a whole living area, it's hard, loud, dusty work: you're breaking up and carrying a couple of tonnes of ceramic. You'll also need to hire a tile stripper or demolition hammer and a grinder, and deal with silica dust. Our step-by-step guide on how to remove floor tiles covers the tools, safety gear and when it's worth calling a pro.

What a Good Tile Removal Quote Includes

Before you compare prices, make sure each quote covers:

• Removal of floor tiles, wall tiles, skirting tiles and stair tiles (whichever apply)
• Removal of the bedding or adhesive, not just the tiles
• Grinding the slab back to clean concrete
• Dust control (extraction on machines, sealed doorways)
• Bagging, loading and disposal of waste
• What happens if asbestos or magnesite is found
• Whether GST is included

A quote that says "remove tiles" and nothing else usually means the adhesive stays behind for the next trade.

How to Keep Tile Removal Costs Down

• Do the whole area at once. One mobilisation, one grinder setup, one waste run. Splitting rooms over months costs more overall.
• Clear the rooms yourself. Empty rooms mean faster work, and some companies charge to move furniture.
• Combine removal with the new floor. Bundling strip-out, prep and laying with one crew usually costs less than three separate trades, and avoids paying twice for clean-up.
• Ask what's included. A cheap removal price that leaves adhesive ridges behind just moves the cost to the next trade.
• Test early. If asbestos is a possibility, find out before the job is booked. Discovering it halfway through means stopping, testing and rescheduling.

Tile Removal by Nulook Timber Flooring

We strip tiles across Perth, either as a standalone job or as day one of a new floor. The same in-house crew removes the tiles, grinds and tests the slab, levels it and lays the new floor, so there's no gap between trades to argue about. See our floor strip-out service and concrete prep and levelling service, then request a free measure and fixed quote or call 0405 821 884.

Frequently Asked Questions