What is under the vinyl flooring?

[Anna Kettle]

I am about to lay vinyl flooring in my kitchen. On the floor at the moment are 25 year old Marley tiles

I have been warned that these are stuck down with bitumen which can seep through and discolour my vinyl flooring. I dont want to take up the tiles+bitumen, it would be a horrible job and the floor would end up a lot less flat then it is now

so before I lay the vinyl I want to put down something which is impermeable to bitumen. Suggestions so far are

- Hardboard

- Latex

- Plastic sheet

Or am I just looking for work? Bitumen seep has not caused me problems so far

Anna

[Bob Mannix]

I would have thought the possibility of seepage was remote after 25 years - the bitumen will be rock hard and dry by now. I would take up an inconspicuous tile. If the bitumen is still plastic you might want to adopt one of the suggested techniques. If you have to chip it off, I wouldn't bother.

[Chris J Dixon]

How are you planning to fix the sheet material you are thinking of putting over the tiles? The flatness and permanence of the finished floor would completely depend upon this. Are you laying tiles or sheet vinyl?

AIUI, any professional tiler would simply rip out all the existing tiles and pour a self-leveling screed.

OTOH if there is no evidence of bitumen visible on your existing tiles, why should it trouble your new ones?

When I had my kitchen done, the flooring guy used one of those long-handled scrapers, and lifted the original tiles, older than yours, plus the sheet material which had been stuck on top, very quickly.

Chris

[TheScullster]

"Anna Kettle" wrote

I had some damp issues due to a long leaking under floor pipe - before we bought our current 1970s house. The damp had got well under most of the downstairs tiles so I lifted them. Subsequent visitors for other works - builders, leak detection guys and the like - have said that these form an additional damp proofing barrier (the DPMs used in those days were wafer thin). So if there's no sign of problems I'd be inclined to leave them be

Phil

[Dave Liquorice]

Until the plasticisers in the new vinyl leach out into the bitumen. B-)

If the marley tiles are in good nick no bits missing along the tile edges and no gaps bewteen them I'd be tempted just to lay the vinly (roll?) straight on to them. It is a sound smooth floor after all...

If the marley tiles are not in good enough condition I'd investigate how they are fixed. Bitumen would be a right PITA and would need sealing somehow, you won't get all of it out of the substrate it is on. A self leveling screed of some sort would be my prefered option making sure the maker said that bitumen won't leach through. Anna might be lucky and find them fixed with "Evo Stick" or even self adhesive. Evo Stick would be a PITA to remove and may still require a screed or other covering to get a smooth floor for the vinyl but at least it doesn't leach.