Horrible black floor tile adhesive

[Midge]

The downstairs bog project continues........

House is concrete floored downstairs and covered in horrible thermoplastic tiles. For the most part, they are VERY well stuck down and everywhere else in the house I have got away with localised repairs/levelling around the edges (due to carpet fitters braying nails through them) and then flooring over the top.

Not here though - the tiles are in a right state under the existing cushion floor, probably not helped by the state of the concrete underneath which doesn't look at all good. The only option seems to be to rip them up, and put some levelling screed down. There are only about 2 sq metres of them and getting them up is the easy bit - but left behind on the rough concrete is some kind of black (bitumen based?) adhesive which I doubt the screed will stick to.

I've been attacking it with a scraper and barely managing to get postage stamp sized bits up with lots of effort, and wire brushes hardly make a mark on it as its too soft. Just wondered if there was some sort of solvent for this stuff and/or any other ideas to get it up?

TIA, Midge.

[MuddyMike]

I removed a small area from my son's bog floor with the aid of a hot air gun, messy job though as it turned to chewing gum consistency.

Mike

[Midge]

I can imagine lol

I was experimenting with boiling water last night and that seemed to loosen it a bit without melting it but its still bad stuff.

[MuddyMike]

That reminds me. I removed some modern adhesive using the wallpaper steamer. I made up a nozzle from a few odds and ends of pipe fittings to replace the big flat thing used on wallpaper. I had to add a pipe lagging hand grip later as it gets too hot to hold . It is useful for all sorts of clean up jobs. I only had the hot air gun handy when lifting the tile goo but would probably have used the steamer if it had not been 20 miles away at the time.

Mike

[fred]

In article , Midge writes

A heavy duty scraper might help by letting you get some real weight behind it:

Maybe with a bit of warming by hot air gun or fan heater.

[Midge]

Thanks - reminds me, I do actually have a steam wallpaper stripper in the garage somewhere. I'll give that a bash.

[Midge]

Thanks - that's identical to the scraper I'm using and normally it shifts anything, but the concrete is rough under the adhesive. If you do get a smooth flat bit, it lifts it better.

I'll try the hot air gun tonight alongside my wallpaper stripper.

Also had another idea to stick some duct tape on it and see if I can peel it off with the tape.

Midge.

[Roger]

Sometimes chilling/freezing will allow black mastic to be chipped away. Have had luck in the past using dry ice on small areas. sometimes it is better to leave the mastic in place and seal it with a skim coat of thinset.

[Ledswinger]

When dealing with this black yuk prior to laying ceramic tiles I used a wide blade chisel on my SDS drill (obviously with rotation stop set). Job done in no time. Not suitable if you only want to put down more lino because it will slightly roughen the concrete, but not a problem if re-screeding, or if you're laying ceramic tiles because the adhesive will stick and the tiles can be levelled in the normal way.

Led