Have some cork tiles on a wood floor stuck on with some form of 'rubber' based adhesive. What's the best way to remove them?
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10 years ago
Removing cork tiles
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10 years ago
Angle grinder obviously :)
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10 years ago
On Wednesday 12 June 2013 10:54 Dave Plowman (News) wrote in uk.d-i-y:
That sort of glue is like evostik - it should soften a lot if heated with a hot air gun and a wide bladed scraper will probably be able to lift the tile.
Nearest I have done is rubber tiles with similar glue onto screed - used a flat bladed spade to ping then off. However, this will probably do damage to you underlying wood.
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10 years ago
Pray they put hardboard down first. I don't envy you if they stuck them to the floorboards
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10 years ago
No hardboard.
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10 years ago
Any chemical method would involve strong solvents. Expensive, toxic, and probably no longer available. Any mechanical method (flapwheels etc) would soften the adhesive through friction and make an unholy mess.
A friend took his up and planed them with a hand held electric plane to remove that black tarry stuff the Victorians were fond of. A long process IIRC
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10 years ago
In that case lift the lot, tiles and hardboard. I doubt very much that the hardboard will be in a useable state after trying to get the cork tiles off it. Even if you can there is likely to be a lot of glue residue.
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10 years ago
Another person who doisnet understand that "no hardboard" means "no hardboard" whereas "No. Hardboard. " means "No its not on the floor direct, there IS hardboard""
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10 years ago
Ah it's early (or was) I don't do mornings.
Shades of "Eats, shoots and leaves". B-)
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10 years ago
If you can get the tiles up then the glue will/should shift with a wallpaper scraper and liberal amounts of talcum powder - it will form into balls which easily swept up.
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10 years ago
Heat didn't shift them - cork is a pretty good insulator. I have a Bosch wood carving thingie which I bought ages ago and haven't used much. With its wide (2") scraper blade they came up fairly easily. Apart from the vibration back through the hand. ;-) Needed some care to get the angle right so not to chisel bits off the floorboards, though.
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10 years ago
Garden spade is easiest in my experience.
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10 years ago
On Saturday 22 June 2013 07:05 harryagain wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Yes - but on wood???
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10 years ago
You'd need a huge amount of force too. Nor could you use your foot to do it as the angle is all wrong.
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10 years ago
On Saturday 22 June 2013 09:40 Dave Plowman (News) wrote in uk.d-i-y:
But the PP was right - it works very well on a concrete subfloor. But you do need flat spade, not one witha slight curve as is common.
Like shovelling coal on a steam train (yes, I did, once) you use the momentum of the spade to do the work. Good smooth swing, slide and pop. Sometimes 4 come off at once if the glue is not so good :)