Removing bitumen from parquet?

[Michael Kilpatrick]

At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we get to lay it!

Michael

[The Medway Handyman]

Car valeters use a specific Tar & Glue Remover for this & its very effective, especially the 'orange' based ones;

[Michael Kilpatrick]

[snip]

>>

you very much for that. I'm assuming, since you mention car valeting, that the products in question leave the wood/etc in very good condition for a quick sanding and finishing afterwards. I'll look into that. Obviously the requirements for removing tar from the top surface of the parquet is more detailed than that for the underside, where it doesn't matter if the wood is stained and blotched.

Michael

[the_constructor]

I found white spirit is just as good as anything..

Jim G

[John Rumm]

I think if you took any great globs of it off prior to sanding, that would be adequate rather than "as much of the offending bitumen as humanly possible". White spirit will wipe off most of it, although it niffs, and would be more of a fire risk than the citrus based tar removers.

Depends on what you are sticking them down with I suppose!

[NT]

Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern adhesive, it all has to come off.

NT

[DerbyBoy]

Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern adhesive, it all has to come off.

NT

surely, solvents may cause it to be absorbed into the wood. I would go for mechanical / manual removal.

[NT]

Not to any great extent, but thats already done, when it was frist applied.

NT

[Moonraker]

I had the same problem. I simply warmed mine up with a blow lamp in paint stripping mode, then when the bitumen had soften scraped it off. There was little remaining which I hand sanded. Worked for me.

[Bolted]

There are plenty of modern adhesives which are bitumen compatible (like lecol 5500, etc).

Whether you have to remove any depends on the state of the underside. The reclaimed parquet I've used came with a very smooth even layer, so it was left on, but I've seen some with really crusty thick stuff which looked impossible to work with (with any adhesive).

[Andrew Gabriel]

Citrus based product may raise the grain, as it contains water, and you want to avoid that before sanding. White spirit shouldn't do that, and once it's evaporated, there will be no residue and no smell. I would only be worried in case it managed to wash any tar deeper into the surface, but I suspect it won't go deep enough that it won't be pretty instantly sanded off, but I would test a bit first.

[Bolted]

I don't know - I would just buy some other tidier blocks and use a safer, easier, quicker and more pleasant to use adhesive.

[Janes]

replying to Michael Kilpatrick, Janes wrote: We used a company in Bradford, now in Manchester, to do ours. They collected the parquet (all we needed to do was bag it up) once cleaned they delivered it back to us. We had the bitumen removed and the tongue taken off as cleaning the tongue and groove was costly and after a long chat it made more sense to remove the tongue as it's not needed with the strength of today's adhesives. After spending hours and hours trying to clean them myself I gave it up as a bad job. Not the cheapest way of cleaning them, but by far the easiest and most professional way. I was delighted with the result. You can choose 3 bitumen removal services, plus various other services. These are the only company that will touch parquet with sticky bitumen on - ours even had concrete stuck to them. Cost us about £20 per square metre but saved us A fortune in fitting cost as the fitter wanted a daily rate to remove and some wouldt touch the job. You'll find that the modern adhesives that state you can use with bitumen backed blocks are not all they're made out to be. You can use this adhesive with reminants of bitumen, not a full block full of bitumen, otherwise they may loft (just like some Of our first floor did!!! Anyhow, sorry for ranting on, the company is Parquet Bitumen Removal

And it's a lady who does this work. Amazing if you ask me.

[tabbypurr]

Spam for a product no-one needs to pay for. Just apply more bitumen.

NT

[Huge]

We used the parquet as kindling and put down carpet instead.

[Lee]

Friends of ours spent a year renovating the very nice Parquet floor in their house, then decided to sell. First thing the new owners did was lay carpet :)

[The Natural Philosopher]

When we sold late mums house, went back there - next door had also been sold and new owners had pulled up carpet. 'Golly, That's the oak parquet that was there when that house was built' I said.

They were thrilled to discover it.

[harry]

Yes. +1

[harry]

Get the bulk/thick bits off with a blowlamp and shavehook. That's usually all that is needed.

Shavehook:-

[stvlcnc43]

Yes, that is what DOES happen, as the guys working on a job I was on discov ered. Although, they also discovered that bitumen-covered parquet can be re liably laid using a tile adhesive which is suitable for use on bitumen base s (effectvely you will be turning upside-down the normal procedure where th e tile is applied to the bitumen floor, by applying the bitumen to the tile , "tile" and "concrete" being considered identical). The parquet was laid i n this way in 2005, and is still fine.