I am moving into a house in a few weeks and went to see it today. The previous owner has had sticky type tiles in the kitchen floor. They are about a foot square. Some are missing and where they are the floor is realy sticky to the point that if you stand for any time it pulls your show off. Obviouslt the whole of the tiles will be removed but what do I get rid of this stickyness with? I was only there for an hour and it drove me mad.
I have used ordinary talcum powder to reduce stickiness of surfaces. Might work. Don't use too much - just enough or you might end up with clouds of talc... - not good for you.
I doubt that you would get rid of it easily, it is the glue from the tiles which needs cleaning from the floor. I presume you are putting down some new flooring? What type? I'd be tempted to get the old tiles up, then lay your new underlay direclty on top of the sticky mess. Acetone/turps/white spirit/IPA could be tried to dissolve the glue, but none are guaranteed to work. Alan.
I'd just put newspaper down. That'll get on your nerves as well, but at least you won't stick to it. When the time comes, I think cellulose thinners might be worth a try. Depending on what the new floor's going to be, you may not need to remove it.
Hard to say without knowing what sort of adhesive it is, but I think I'd be tempted to cover over it with something rather than remove it. Eg, replace with an odd tile of the same size, or get an offcut of kitchen vinyl floor and cut squares from that. Or maybe even scatter sawdust over it, and then sweep or vacuum up what doesn't stick. All assuming this is very much a stop-gap job, of course!
David
with a new floor dear Lisa.
What are the tiles stuck on? (Floorboards; quarry tiles; concrete etc.?) If smooth and hard, a scraper is your best bet; possibly aided by a hot air blower. Finish off with washing soda or sugar soap scrub.
Solvents would be either a fire risk; a knock out, or both: best kept for small jobs with plenty of ventilation: not whole floors. They would also tend to just spread the stickiness around.
On the other hand, 'Nitro Moors' and its allies are very expensive, but effective (if unpleasant and sometimes dangerous) in small areas: would tend to dissolve plasticky things you didn't want them to, whilst still leaving surfaces a bit sticky unless they are nice smooth ceramic or metal ones.
If you are lucky, and the surface below the tiles is a sound one, caustic soda is one thing that lifts a lot of surface coatings without 'restickifying' them, but it would need to be a strong solution and it can be almost as dangerous to use as the solvents (Goggles; long rubber gloves; mask; kneelers.) Having said that, it was the only thing I found that would get gloss paint off my bathroom wall (and in the bathroom you have a handy receptacle for rinsing down into.), and it is the preferred method for dipping doors etc to get old paint off. Caustic residues on the floor will also turn into harmless soda carb after a couple of days exposure to the CO2 in the air, if there are any left after you have finished cleaning and rinsing the surface.
Having said all that, if it's just the odd tile hole you want to destickify, continually going over the surface with cloths and, either white spirit; meths; or acetone (nail varnish remover) - whichever one proves to be the compatible solvent with what was used in the tile adhesive - will get it off. (One of the handiest glue solvents used to be MEK - methyl-ethyl-ketone - but failing that, keeping a bottle of each of these other commonly available solvents, handy in your house 'kit' is a good idea for just such occasions.)
Whilst I'm at it, my prize for the stickiest, most unremovable substance of all: sunflower oil! Astonishing how what one thinks of as a lubricant, becomes an indestructible sticky mess (makes excellent fly paper) once it's been exposed to the air for a while!
S
Hi
The floor undernearth is concrete. Half the tiles are still on which will need removing. I dont mind spending on it as long as the floor becomes unsticky.
In a previous house I had to remove thermoplastic tiles from a screeded concrete floor, it was a pig of a job. I found by trial and error that the simplest way to remove them was to hire a wallpaper steamer device and heat them up for approx 2 mins then use a garden spade and/or a bolster to lever them up. some of the tiles still had lumps of screed attached to them, so by the end of the removal phase the screeded floor was far from satisfactory to relay any type of floor. Self levelling compound was floated over the top and after it had totally dried I laid an underlay and carpet over it. I lived there for approx 15 yrs after with no apparent problems. During the tile removal phase it was difficult to walk over the exposed adhesive without leaving your shoes attached to it :-). however, spreading a little dry sand over the sticky bits alleviated that problem. and the sand just mixed with the self levelling compound in the second phase. Hope this helps Don
We've exactly that situation in our house. A hot air gun and flat scraper gets the tiles up. Petrol disolves the glue. Usual precautions with the petrol, close all the doors, seal the windows and work by candle light.
Only joking about the precautions - the petrol does actually work. Uses lots of old rags but they make a great bonfire afterwards.
John
SamanthaBooth wrote:
One point is whether you're buying the house, or letting it. If buying, you'll be more bothered about a long-term solution.
Most of the solutions suggested so far make it clear that this is a horrible (possibly dangerous) business.
Personally I'd never even attempt to remove the stickiness with solvents: you'd be on for hours if not days, and you would never be 100% successful. And you'd make yourself ill.
I would rip 'em all up (another poster has suggested ways and means). Then I'd get some of that heavy duty paper that floorers and carpeters use to underlay the underlay (very thick paper in very wide rolls). And then I'd lay a nice cushioned vinyl on top of it all, and forget it.
And if I had a *little* bit more money, I'd get the shop where I bought the vinyl to lay it for me, because they'd do it a lot better than me, and a hell of a lot quicker.
hth john
I have an idea I wanted to run past you guys. Instead of trying to get al the stickyness off, could I remove the remaining tiles and put down some kind of board? A very this board like the stuff you have as backing on kitchen cupboards??? I dont know the name. That then wopuld save me stripping it and also make it workable soon. If this is possible and as its a concrete floor how would I stick the wood down???
Sorry for all the questions but i need some help.
What's the plan for the floor though? What's stopping you just putting down a new floor covering rather than these temporary bodges?
David
Well the plan was to cover with thin board so I dont have the job of unsticking it, then putting lino down on top. Its a kitchen floor so lino wil suffice.
OK, well if you put down board (you'd need to use waterproof-grade plywood, not hardboard which would turn to weetabix in a kitchen) there'd be no need to remove the remaining tiles, you could just slap it down on top of what you've got now. However, I reckon that's overkill, plus you may introduce problems with the levels at doorways etc: if I were you I'd either buy some odd tiles to replace the missing ones and lay vinyl over that; or just fill the 'dips' with some form of filler - have a look at this recent thread (or
for thought on how to fill the dips.
hth David
Burn it off with a gas torch,ya could of borrowed mine but I cant find the damn paint burner head. :-(
If you're using proper lino, it ain't cheap, and the surface has to be very well prepared. Most contractors won't consider laying it without a self levelling screed beforehand, but that can probably be applied to the sticky surface. If you mean vinyl, that is more tolerant, but will still last better on a smooth surface
I thought proper "lino" had vanished years ago along with bakelite... is it still around as such? I think most laymen use it to refer to any form of sheet-type floor covering, don't they?
David
Looks like the old Nairn lino factory in Kircaldy has been taken over by Forbo:
And, specifically linoleum:
I think it refers to products such as marmoleum, which are still made from linseed oil and wood flour.
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