Remove Ceramic Floor Tile - Preserve Hardwood Floor Under?

 
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Sting
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Post by Sting » Mon. Oct. 26, 2015 4:04 pm

I recently had success with a wet towel over night to soften the glue that would multimedia plug my sand paper
wet = it came right up the next day with a sharp scrape

slow process but after the floor dried back out I sanded - packed the joints with hemp rope and applied lots of coats of tong oil

 
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Post by Richard S. » Mon. Oct. 26, 2015 8:31 pm

I'm very surprised you don't have a lot of popped/ cracked tiles. Does it look like that was recently put in?

Looks like mastic, basically glue. Sting may be onto something. I know you are not supposed to use it anywhere that is constantly wet such as a shower because it will fail.

If a chisel is taking it off they do make small air chisels you can get a 4 or 5 inch wide chisel for. If you have a compressor it will probably be same cost or even less than renting a scraper. Take longer but you'll have an air chisel at the end of the day.

I'll make suggestion here. For the transition from the one room to the other, if that is door frame or whatever you can cut the sections with the holes and put in a nice wide piece of oak. As long as it's sectioning off different rooms it doesn't look odd at all.

 
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Post by freetown fred » Mon. Oct. 26, 2015 8:51 pm

They have a nice selection of door sills/ room to room sills/ transitions at any good tile store. Not that expensive if my memory serves me--LOL Why does everything have to be pneumatic or any thing to avoid a couple hrs of work where you have total control over what is going on???????????? Sting IS on to something if that's mastic.

 
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Post by NJJoe » Tue. Oct. 27, 2015 10:45 am

Just spoke to my flooring guy and he is pretty sure his drum sander can grind away the remnants of whatever this adhesive is.

Also, the use of glue is perhaps a hidden blessing. 4-5 whacks with a regular framing hammer and the tile breaks off and chunks can be swept away. I figure about 2-3 hours of hammering and I'll have the hallway cleared.

Or, I can rent this tool from home depot tool rental: http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Compa ... index.html

Its not as beefy as a wheeled floor stripper (such as this: http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/PRO_F ... index.html ) Even though, your hands shake like crazy after operating it and you feel beat up after a few hours using this thing. But I have used one before on tile stuck to a wood floor and if you use it correctly, it wont destroy or even scratch the wood floor underneath. I'm thinking it can make even quicker work of a tile floor vs manually hammering.

I'll update after my attempts and let you know how it turns out.


 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Oct. 27, 2015 12:01 pm

NJJoe wrote: Or, I can rent this tool from home depot tool rental: http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Compa ... index.html
You can buy an air chisel for what that will cost to rent. If you don't hav a compressor a small compressor can be purchased for about $100. The compressor opens up the opportunity for other tools and uses. We have a large one, I use all the time.

 
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Post by NJJoe » Tue. Oct. 27, 2015 12:18 pm

Richard S. wrote:
NJJoe wrote: Or, I can rent this tool from home depot tool rental: http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Compa ... index.html
You can buy an air chisel for what that will cost to rent. If you don't hav a compressor a small compressor can be purchased for about $100. The compressor opens up the opportunity for other tools and uses. We have a large one, I use all the time.
Do you have one that you recommend? I have a bunch of luan (underlayment for yet another tile floor that needs to go) that I could use this tool on to break it off and remove...

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Oct. 27, 2015 12:32 pm

Joe, since you are not contractor and a tool like that is not going to be used much just get one at Harbor Freight or whatever you have near you. When I go to a place like that I usually look at the "higher" priced tools because they will be of medium quality.

 
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Post by NJJoe » Sun. Nov. 01, 2015 9:30 am

davidmcbeth3 wrote:It maybe soluble in some type of solvent? Try (in small area): propyl cellosolve (aka ethylene glycol monopropyl ether) -- 10 min soak time and scraper afterwards.
Don't work? Try methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) -- heavily soak - 3 min - scrapper. Don't work? Toluene - 5 min soak time - scrape.
Don't work? Methlyene chloride (MeCl) - 1 min soak - scrape.
Or mastic remover .. at home depot.
Thanks for these recommendations. Used standard adhesive stripper from Home depot and the stuff came off pretty easily. More pics added here: https://goo.gl/photos/qvWfVHA56KJFxLXw7

Some things I learned. When the recommendations say to work in a 3ft x 3ft area, listen to these recommendations. The reason why is because if the stripper dries, the adhesive has a tendency to resolidify and adhere again. The process is to paint on a layer of stripper and cover with plastic for half hour. Remove the plastic and get stripping. I got too cocky and thought I could accomplish more than that recommended area only to find I had to re-apply stripper when the mastic got tacky again. An extra set of hands would surely help if you want to go faster and work in a bigger area.

Also this stuff was the "weakest" stuff sold. The chemicals you mentioned are way stronger and not sold on the shelf; they need to be specially requested from the paint counter. I was even cautioned that those chemicals would affect the wood floor, so I decided against them. Even so, using the weak stripper, one drop unknowingly got on my arm and in less than a minute a strong burning itching sensation began. I had to drop what I was doing and wash my arm with soap. Truly nasty stuff.

I'd say this stuff worked pretty well. I would apply a second coat and strip again to remove it all but I think its reasonably good and my flooring guy will sand off the rest. I just wanted to get rid of the big peaks and valleys that would prevent the sanding drum from contacting the floor uniformly.


 
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Post by andits1992 » Tue. Jun. 02, 2020 1:04 pm

It all depends on the instillation. If it was done properly, the hardwood under it is toast. If they did a poor job it might come up easily. You're never going to know till you try, go hit it with a hammer and see what happens.

 
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Post by Holdencoal » Tue. Jun. 02, 2020 6:50 pm

IMO that tile style will come back within the next 10 years. I would have kept it and be ahead of the reacquiring trends. Just saying.

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Tue. Jun. 02, 2020 7:53 pm

This thread is five years old so we may not have to wait that long, LOL.

 
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Post by Holdencoal » Tue. Jun. 02, 2020 9:17 pm

:clap: :yes:

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