Removal of bitumen adhesive from concrete floor

Feb 12, 2004 5 Replies

Does anyone know of a good way to remove black bitumen adhesive painted onto concrete? It's the type used to stick parque flooring in place. Chipping it away with a hammer and bolster chisel does a good job, as it takes a fine top layer of the concrete finish off, but it's tedious and hurts. Angle grinders fitted with disks or brushes make a serious mess and the smell lingers. The floor does not have a screeded surface, but is "power floated" to a smoothish, albeit uneven, finish



The reason for removing the bitumen is so I can re-level the floor prior to fitting new floor boards. Not enough room to keep bitumen and lay boards on battens (thought of that one).


Never attempted this sort of thing meself, but how about scoring the bitumen in square 12" blocks and using a good firm scraper to lift it.

Should I get me coat.?

G

That's a job I might be faced with shortly (see thread about removing vinyl tiles).

One pissobolity for you might be a Bosch electric scraper. I bought one recently but as yet haven't had the chance to use it. Check this out at:

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email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

Not a hope - this will kill the Bosch scraper (DAMHIKT)

The Fein Multimaster (better made, and with a side-to-side action) does a good job on bitumen paint on floorboards. Never tried it on concrete through.

I'd be tempted to hire a scarifier. Like a mongo-great slow-speed angle-grinder with wire wheels. It leaves a network of fine grooves behind (intended to key the concrete for something else to go on top), but it also shifts the top layer of any sort of crud and is clog resistant.

22 years ago I used benzene* to do this job, and on small areas it worked very well - I certainly couldn't recommend going down that route today, assuming that you could get hold of benzene. (* known carcinogen, does nasty things to the heart etc.)

And you can't lay them on the bitumin besause....?

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