No matter what floor you are ripping up prior to laying floor tiles, you're sure to come across a few hidden surprises that may have accumulated over the years, or are part of the initial construction design of the room in question. When dealing with bathrooms, if you were to pull up vinyl flooring you may always expect to find mold or mildew, and possible water damage to the main flooring.
These will obviously have to completely scrubbed down, given a good bleaching, and rectified before you continue with your floor tiling project, otherwise they will just cause further problems after the laying of floor tiles. Other aspects will be regarding on what fixed furnishings you decide to remove before tiling and what you plan on working around.
A bath tub or an enclosed wash hand basin unit can easily be tiled around without disrupting the fixtures if they are still in good condition, however ceramic fixtures like free-standing wash hand basins or toilet bowls should be removed and tiled underneath where they are actually mounted to the flooring. This is the correct way to lay floor tiles in the bathroom other than just tiling around them, which can actually be more of a headache.
When removing the toilet for example, first of all this is going to be a messy and smelly job, so be sure not to wear your 'Sunday best' when doing this. First thing you should do before removing a toilet is to shut off the water supply going to the tank or cistern. This is normally found to be a valve near the toilet most likely attached to the water feed pipe at the wall. Simply turn this off, but sometimes they may be a little sticky due to rust accumulation, so just grip it with the jaws of your plumber's adjustable pliers, (water pump pliers), or anything else similar to give it that extra leverage, and turn off.
Next thing you want to do is empty the toilet tank of any water, so give it a couple of flushes to make sure it's all gone in order to avoid a messy situation and an unnecessary additional weight when lifting the toilet. Once empty, remove the hose connected to the tank, again with your plumber's pliers or by hand if it is not that tight. You may get a little leakage of water when you do this, so just put down a rag or a small container to catch the leftover drips and prevent them from soaking the floor.
Apart from the water remaining in the U-bend of the toilet, now that it is almost empty and your hoses are disconnected, you then have to remove it from its floor mountings. This could be simply four threaded nuts depending on your toilet design found at the base of the bowl, but are usually concealed by plastic caps to enhance the cosmetic look of the toilet. Just pop the caps off these nuts with a flat head screwdriver, then with possibly either a 12mm or 13mm wrench, (or 1/2" wrench if you prefer), simply unscrew the nuts. If you don't have a wrench at hand to suit then by all means use your pliers, but make sure you get a good grip around the nut, otherwise the jaw can slip and damage the exterior hex of the nut or the mounting threads.
When all the nuts are removed, with the help of another person when possible to make the job easier, lift the toilet upwards from its mountings. Be careful when you do this though as you will find it to be somewhat top-heavy and off-balance due to the placement of the tank, so compensate for this when lifting and watch you don't damage your back. There may be a slight mess of water from the U-bend when you remove it, so always have a rag handy to mop it up, and for hygienic purposes wear disposable latex or rubber gloves when working with such an unsanitary job.
On a final note, when it comes to replacing your toilet after floor tiling, be sure not to tighten the mounting nuts or bolts with too much exertion, otherwise you may crack the ceramic toilet bowl and add to the expense of your project. Be sure and replace the wax seal between the toilet and the floor also, as there is a good chance this has perished over due course and you hopefully don't want to be seeing it again for some time to come.
