TSP?

[Nate Nagel]

OK, so apparently I'm old school beyond my years... any time that I had to clean concrete in the past, I'd scoop out some TSP from the big bucket in my dad's garage and mix up a solution, and scrub away. Apparently TSP is no longer available. I just scraped up a whole mess of cheapass vinyl tile from my laundry room floor, and I'd like to simply clean the concrete and leave as is. What product should I use?

Note to self, next time it might be good to check these things out before filling up a 30 gallon trash can with what used to be my floor. Or something like that.

On a sort-of related note, Home Depot still sucks. I hope that the one blade that I have for my floor scraper doesn't break before I get done with this floor. (I used a sidewalk scraper to peel the tiles up; that seemed to work better.)

nate

[Doug Brown]

[Cliff Hartle]

I think depends on where you live.

[Nate Nagel]

Yes, apparently since I live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, I can't get it, unless I drive quite a distance. So what should I use instead? Are the "TSP Substitute" products any good? I'm basically trying to clean a concrete floor; the major product that I'm trying to remove is the remains of the adhesive from the floor tile that will remain after scraping. It does seem to be somewhat affected by hot water, so perhaps this will not be incredibly difficult, but I'd like to get it as clean as possible (I have a dream that someday I will have an actually clean basement.)

nate

[G. Morgan]

Wiki is my friend!

They recommend:

[Pete C.]

I'm not sure how well even real TSP would work for removing adhesive remains. A sure thing would be to rent a concrete scarifier from your local United Rentals or similar. One will certainly remove the adhesive and grind a very nice surface on the concrete, "remove oil and contaminants, mill scale or rust, epoxy coatings, thermoplastic coatings, paint and traffic lines. Level uneven surfaces and trip hazards".

[DanG]

To release the adhesive get one of the citrus based cleaner/strippers. Contact any commercial floor layer's supply house.

Real Trisodium Phosphate should be available at good paint stores, look for Savogran brand. TSP is alkaline and I don't think it will do much for removing adhesive.

[gpsman]

Tough to say without seeing it. Google muriatic acid. It can be diluted to fit the task, you might get away with as little as a 2% solution. ------

- gpsman

[mm]

I would check to make sure that TSP is actually made from trisodium phosphate. The stuff I saw wasn't. I think I posted here a couple years about this observation.

[sylvan butler]

The TSP by me is still trisodium phosphate. Just look for TSP and not TSP(r) or "TSP substitute".

sdb