removing flooring adhesive

barry,
i went through a bunch of products/tools when i was reflooring my eichler. surprisingly, the easiest and most effective solution for me was scraping the adhesive off with a razor blade (housed in one of those scraper holders). you'll go through a bunch of blades. but, blades are cheap. it helps to pour hot water over the adhesive before you start scraping. this keeps down the dust as well (which may very well be asbestos-laden). i know it sounds tedious but it goes quickly and you have a small area so maybe give it a try. you'll want knee pads, too, of course.

kevin

I have seen discussion on this board about soy-based products and using an electric hand chisel.

Let me know what you find and what works. I'll be stripping 1200 sqft of slab my self in the coming months!

Could this be another House Doctor story?

Try this web site, I tested this product at a builders show and it works well and is not hazardess.http://www.franmar.com/

that's the one! has anyone used this on their slab. if so, how important is the degreaser?

Barry,

I used Franmar Bean-e-doo to remove the black mastic in my bathroom. It works efficiently and you don't have to worry about getting cancer from the fumes! Unfortunately, it is not locally stocked, so I had to order a gallon of the stuff by mail. For fun, compare the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for this soy based product to the MSDS for the roughly equivalent Jascoproduct.

Robert

Thank to everyone who recommended the Franmar soy-based product (http://www.franmar.com/). As noted, there is no Northern California distributor, I ordered it from a Portland company that Franmar referred me to. I'll let you know how it works. I'm just doing about 25 sq. ft. in my 2nd bathroom, so it won't be a huge job, but a good test for my future reflooring project.

Thanks,
Barry

Hi Barry-

I've tried on on my concrete floor black mastic and it also worked for me to make a smooth surface. You will want to make extra sure that the Beanedoo is removed with a cleaner (i.e. TSP and water) so that the surface is clean before you install the next floor. Just to be sure, I would try a test spot as follows:

1. Remove adhesive with Beanedoo
2. Clean
3. Apply a small bit of new adhesive with floor and wait for it to cure.
4. Try to pop it off with a spatula.

It sounds laborious but it's extra insurance that you have done it right before you do the whole thing.

I also couldn't figure out what do do with the beanedoo when it's done it's job- I finally found someone who squegees it up then throws something like kitty litter on it to absorb it.

I haven't tried it on a large area but I've heard the Beanedoo can make the surface very slippery so watch out.

I'm just passing on what I've heard and the small amount that I have done but I never used it on a large scale area like others on this forum.
/Lynn

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for your comments. I just wanted to say that I'm not putting down a new floor after removing my old mastic, I want to see what the bare slab looks like. I'll either refinish it and leave it as is (cracks, discolorations, and all) or go with a new layer of Ardex or something like that. My goal is bare concrete, one way or the other.

Yes, I read the recent thread on concrete floors and how some people found them too hard (though many did not). If my feet bother me, I'll wear sandals or slippers in the house, that's no big deal. I don't wear my shoes indoors anyway, I wear socks, or in the winter, slippers. I think wearing outdoor footwear inside is a barbaric American custom that most of the rest of the world finds shocking.

The other issue with concrete floors is the noise, but not having kids or dogs, I'm not concerned about that.

Barry

I found the only way to get the old adhesive off my kitchen floor was simple scraping and mucho elbow grease. Steaming seemed to help somewhat but can't say considerably. I never tried any chemicals. After the hideous vinyl and most of it's residue were removed I was left with a glorious bare slab full of imperfections, small cracks and discolorations. My adhesive left a white residue and even after cleaning, buffing, and polishing some is still there. Personaly I love the floor. I put down two industrial kitchen mats in front of the sink and stove and it's great! It is definitely not a look for everyone (my Mother) Good luck! :wink:

Barb, could you please contact me directly so I could learn more about how you cleaned and polished your exposed slab? You can email me at:

admin AT totheweb DOT com

Writing my email address that way keeps the spammers from harvesting the address off this message board. Obviously you don't want to include any spaces in the address when you put it in an email. Or you can call at 650-627-8100.

Thanks very much,

Barry Brisco

Hi there Barry:

To your comment about the practice of us "Amercians" wearing shoes in the house: We installed 12x12 ceramic tile throughout our entire house 4 years ago and absoluetly love it. As a lifelong swimmer since the age of 2.5, I have always gone barefoot, both inside and out, but quickly had to abandon that practice after putting in the new floors. Not only that, but no ordinary shoe or sandal would do. We (hubby and I) both found out the hard way that the only thing that would spare us from waking up in the middle of the night with shooting pains in the bottom of the feet was a pair of rubber-soled clogs.

That said, I would do it over again in a second. There is no perfect flooring and we still find that the earthy feel and smell of the tile is well worth having to wear the clogs, but your experience may vary. So for our "barbaric American custom" I would just close by saying that most things are the way they are for a reason and this is just one of many examples of that.

Cheers,

Cathye

Hi:
I'm curious about the result of removing the tiles. My house has old funky carpeting installed over what appears to be the original cork tiles. I'm planning on ripping out the carpet, ripping up the cork tiles, removing the mastic and replacing it with concrete tiles. This whole process will be done on 1300 square feet.

Has anyone tackled a project of a similar scope on their own? Any suggestions?
Thanks
-Paul

Two things to add here:
What Lynn said about cleaning the slab is ESSENTIAL..oh my, the installers did not clean or seal our floors well enough before pouring a new concrete layer, and now it is popping off in spots! It's a mini nightmare.

Lastly, I know that one of the self-leveling Ardex products does not require you to remove the mastic in case you want to avoid it altogether.