My brother is doing a major renovation. He has torn up the flooring in the kitchen and dining room. The flooring is hardwood that was covered with a linoleum or vinyl product. The wood is covered with an adhesive used for the linoleum. He wishes to re-use some of the wood but needs a technique of getting the adhesive off so he can judge which pieces are ok for re-use. Any good techniques for doing this? Solvents, sanding, et c.
Thanks Dave M.
Scrape what you can first, of course.
Sanding is probably best. If investing in tooling is not an issue, look at stationary belt sanders. Hand held belt sanders are good, but can be lethal to the wood if not done properly. It is very easy to make deep gouges and uneven surfaces.
Next would be a planer, but the gunk may screw up the blades quickly at $25+ a set, plus the initial cost of $250 to $500 for the machine.
No free lunch here. This will be a struggle.
1) Remove as much gunk as possible mechanically, using a scraper, heat gun with good ventilation and muscle. 2) Experiment with solvents and particularly paint removers to determine which brand or type is most effective (Ventilation required!). Some older linoleum adhesives were asphalt emulsions so ammonia could revive the glop and permit scraping off. 3) With a clean dry floor sanding will be possible, but again, experiment with paper grades, machines, whatever to get the best result.Good luck.
Joe
Ed,
Thanks for the reply. He has the hots for a combination/planer, sander in the $3000 range. I told him that was crazy and hoped there would be an easier/cheaper fix. I guess he will need some sort of stationary belt sander or put in new flooring.
Dave M.
David, I restored/renovated a 1927 home about 3 years ago and had the same problem with one room. It had two layers of peel and stick tiles on the floor of one room. I pulled up all the old tile and had a floor covered with sticky goo. It was impossible to sand as the sand paper clogged in just a few seconds. So I spent the day on my hands and knees with a razor scraper and a spray bottle of full strength "Simple Green". I sprayed and scraped the goo off the floor then sanded the floor and it came out beautiful.
Thanks Dave M.
Turn the boards over? They should be the same wood on the other side!
Floors are routinely sanded with this gunk. Get a rental floor sander and
12 or 16 grit paper. Has rocks on it.----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
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If it's REALLY bad and you DO need to plane them, then it's not impossible to, say, HIRE SOMEONE to plane them for you - someone who maybe has this $3k planer (or better) and would charge you a whole lot less to do it (thereby paying for his planer a bit more quickly). Both sides win.
But odds are low that a good sanding wouldn't fix it.
A friend bought a house with cat pee SOAKED into the floors and, since it's a 1892 house, the boards were THICK (he said over 1") and are candidates to lose a 1/4" of stinky pee smelling wood.
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