I had an old vinyl floor in my kitchen that I've now ripped out. What's left is a particle-board type subfloor over the actual wood beams beneath.
The bottom of the old floor has stuck to the subfloor in most places, so there's a thin layer of black stuff across the entire floor, most of which is pretty sticky (I guess it's the old glue).
I'm planning to put vinyl squares down, but I went to Home Depot to figure out what to do about this sticky gunk that's left on the subfloor. The guy there recommended putting down a patch & skim coat over the entire floor, then tiling over that.
So my questions are:
1) Does this sound like the best solution? He said using a chemical to remove this junk would probably be a lot messier in the long run.
2) Any advice about how to apply the patch & skim coat? Is it pretty easy? He said just to mix it with water, apply with a trowel and then level out any high spots. How thick should I aim to make it? And, what do I do about cabinets and walls? Should I do anything to protect these edges from the patch & skim, or should I just go right up to the edges?
thanks for any feedback, Matt