Removing soap dish and toothbrush holders?

Does anyone know the best way to remove really old ceramic soap dish and toothbrush holders from the wall? They also have a layer of caulk around them. We're going to be working on the bathrooms and we need to remove these with minimal damage. Thanks!

Re: Removing soap dish and toothbrush holders?

I was gonna suggest a sledghammer but then read you need minimal damage....so I have no other suggestion, sorry!!!

Re: Removing soap dish and toothbrush holders?

I removed an old towel bar in our old apartmentt successfully without totally damaging the surrounding tile, however the tile it was adhered to needed to be replaced.

You need to cut the caulk with a razor blade and get down to the grout/glue area. Use a grout scraper (a small tool you can find at a good hardware/paint store) and a flat head screwdriver and scrape away at the edges. It will loosen and you will eventually be able to pull it off the soap dish...

In our case the towel bar has been there for so long it took a chunk of the back tile with it. We ended up removing a tile from behind the toilet (use the same technique with the grout scraper and a flat head screwdriver) to repair the broken tile with. We were not replacing the wall tiles so we had to make it look like it was always that way...

HTH!