We have a 1910 vintage building, a former country church, that has a tile floor, probably asphalt tile or vinyl tile, that was laid over a tongue and groove wood floor, that in turn is on a 1″ plank subfloor. I think the T & G floor is Douglas fir. The tile is adhered to an asphalt impregnated felt paper with some kind of adhesive, sort of brown in color. At least that is the color in the spots we have investigated. But the felt paper is adhered to the wood floor with a black asphalt-like adhesive. It is easy enough to remove the tile and the felt paper, but the black adhesive is a big problem. It is still somewhat plyable. It can be scraped but you cannot scrape all of it off. I would guess the tile was put down in the 1950’s. I don’t think it can be sanded off because the tar will just gum up any abrasive media and the heat generated by sanding might make things worse. We would like to recover the wood floor. There is about 1300 square feet of it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Replies
Planer or hand scrape perhaps?
Scrape off as much as you can. I use the sort of 4" razor blade scraper you can find in the tile department of Home Depot or Lowes. After getting as much up as you can, take cotton rags, soak the rag in mineral spirits, and get up the rest. Try to keep the floor as dry as possible; use the rag to melt the glue and a dry rag to get it up. If you get enough mineral spirits on the glue, it will liquify and act as a stain.
Once you get as much up as possible, let it dry completely and sand.
One thing to worry about. During the mid-20th century, glue of this sort usually contained asbestos. If there's some indication that this was put down anywhere from about 1945 to about 1976, avoid breathing any dust. I don't know if asbestos was used in earlier glues.
You might want to Google "cutback adhesive" or "cut back adhesive."
I knew a guy with a similar problem, the tar like substance/adhesive.
He used a striper, I think maybe 3M water base-no toxic smell, not 100% sure on that but it was not one of the kinds thats banned in 48 states!
He was able to lift off all the goo and sand the floors with out any problem.
Doug
You could give a heat gun a try and use that in combination with a hand scraper. Just give it a try on a test area and see what works best.
I have sanded heavy adhesive off of a floor before. I simply estimated a sheet of 16 grit per 8" strip and used an abrasive cleaning stick to extend the life of the sandpaper. I wound up using less paper than estimated. Once the first pass was finished the rest of the grits were as usual. Scraped up as much large adhesive as possible as I went.
I used a dust mask, sealed off the room from the rest of the house, ensured plenty of ventilation, and vacuumed regularly.
Here's some before and after pics.
http://web.mac.com/lovetotweet/iWeb/Simon%20Ott%20Carpentry/More%20Renovations%20Photo%20Album.html
Ott
Edited 10/16/2007 9:39 pm ET by ottcarpentry
Great pics.
CIF,
Considering the time involved attempting to remove the adhesive plus the potential hazard I'm not sure that you will save any real money. Plus it's possible that the floor had reached the end of it's useful life.. you see once wood wears to the point where the tongue or groove is showing it cannot be resanded. You can buy Douglas fir flooring for about $2.50 a sq.ft and the install is fast. before I made a real committment to aatempt to save the floor I'd figure out an area where there would be high wear and clean just that area enough to see what it looks like..