Applying thinset to large floor

[BUB 209]

I looked at a basement floor where there had been a flood, and all the wood parquet tiling had been removed. The room is about 12X16. That adhesive is as hard as a rock and would be about impossible to remove. Would the standard procedure be to float the whole floor in thinset before applying either vinyl tile or paint? Wood the finished thinset job really be smooth enough to paint, or would it be full of swipes and ridges, if a professional did the job? Is putting down the thinset something an ameteur could do?

[wayne]

you can usually get adhesive off in one of 2 ways a heat gun to soften the glue then use an Ice scraper to scrape it off or to freeze it with dry ice causing it to crack. Floating would be quite a bit of work plus it will add to the height of the floor.

Wayne

[SQLit]

Remove the glue try harbor freight for a large propane torch. Thin set is not for walking on, it is a base for ceramic tile.

[Wayne]

I would be careful using a torch, a heatgun is much safer to use. the thinset my understanding was just a way to get a level floor to put new flooring on?

Wayne

[Abe]

--------- The right way to do this would be to rent a floor polisher with a circular abrasive disc (or 3) of the correct grit and slowly abrade the adhesive down to a smooth surface. The corners can be done by hand or a hand held corner sander. Don't forget to seal the surface when you're done.

[LBaker]

There is also an attachment for the floor machine called a scrape away. It has 6-12 carbide steel "blades" thattake the adhesive of quite nicely.

[Sexytom976]

How old is the floor??? Some adhesives from the good old days had asbestos in it. (I think almost EVERYTHING has asbestos in it, milk, vitamins etc) (specifically alot of black cutback has it)

Anyway sanding it would not be a good option as that point because you would release it into the air. Heat might be ok but at that point its going to take a little time to heat the glue AND cement. Freezing it is a GREAT idea when you have questionable tile and want the glue to delaminate from the concete. When you take the tile off if you are lucky the glue will stick mostly to the tile.

I personally used a adhesive remover from Home Depot. You slop it on (windows open) the floor, let it sit. Its desolves the glue a bit (enough for scraping) Do it again and it becomes translucent. Once you are there you are good to go. If you wanted to tile over it you can buy a latex primer (found in the tiling isle) for the floor and then use thinset to tile it over.

Tom

[Charles Spitzer]

why would you put down a latex primer except for crack problems? you want the thinset to bond to the cement floor, and your primer will defeat that.

[DanG]

I read it as a latex bonding agent.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

"Charles Spitzer" wrote in message news:crudut$a09$ [e-mail]...