Doing a tile removal on our master tub/shower. I'm pretty sure the tile is original to the house, which is 34 years old (1978). It's a 4 1/4 inch tile, that has been backed by dry wall. When I was at Home Depot, I asked about what the best tool was and was directed to a 2 3/4" "Electricians" chisel.
After watching a few videos, it appears many people use some sort of curved chisel to help approach the back of the tile with a more perfect lateral, where as with the chisel we have (above) is straight and will always angle into the wall/backing a bit. I'm not sure if that's part of our problem or not.
Right now, the tiles are coming off in very very small pieces - maybe thumb or finger size if we're lucky. Furthermore, they are really only coming off with the drywall backing. If we get the chisel in deep enough and try to pry, the whole wall of tile moves, but clearly not enough to just pull the whole thing off as one piece (tile + drywall backing), given the nails keeping the drywall anchored are (as expected) numerous and spaced through-out the backing.
Any recommendations? Are we using the wrong tool here? What should I expect when removing from dry-wall backing? Should we loosen the grout first with a grout-removal tool (we have an oscillating multi-tool we can get the grout-head for)?
Below are some pictures of what we are seeing. These three pictures represent the sum of about 45 minutes of actual chisel work, and a huge mess of tiny and in some cases pulverized tiles.