I have about 350 sqft of VCT over concrete in a resturant, the ideal is to remove.This stuff is on there to stay. I had 2 young guys go at the first section with sidewalk scrapers. 5 hours later they had it up. I tried heating it with a torch today and it works. Kinda. I’ll be old & grey by the time I get it all up. The space is fairly tight too, just to make it more fun. I have 16″ ceramic that is to go down (waitress station & restrooms). ANy other ideas? I keep thinking it’s so tight to the floor I should just put the ceramic over it.
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I've never done it myself, I guess like you it just seems wrong, but I have demo'ed places that have put ceramic straight over VCT, and seemed to stick.
It might be worth doing a little web searching and see if there's a product that will ensure proper adhesion with thin-set, or if you have the option to add a little height pour a self leveling mixture over this then tile.
Rent a floor tile chipper. Any flooring supply house will have them, for about $30-$35 a day. Plug it in, put on hearing protection, and have at it. Two hours max. including the clean out with your two men, and you are done.
Make sure the plade on the rental unit is sharp.
Dave
Robrehm:
Question: A year later on your VCT removal and ceramic installation project.
What did you end up doing?
I am in the same situation. 150 SF of old VCT stuck good to the floor with the old black tar like crud.
I am thinking it would be better to adhere to tile than the remnants of the old mastic which i imagine is tar based.
thanks
Tile stripping machine & snading the gunk off with a squaRE FLOOR SANDER FROM DEPOT. not pretty , not cheap but it worked
I did not see anyone else mention it but IIRC a lot of that "cut-back adhesive" is asbestos laden. The original poster probably needed to get it out for the restaurant use but like someone else said if it is really stuck consider leaving it.
as the son of a commercial flooring contractor, i'll tell you what i know: if it's stuck good, leave it. use a good thin-set with a latex additive for your ceramic. the problem with removing v.c.t. is two part- the first part is the obvious butt busting work it takes to tear it out, the second is the adhesive that is underneath it - it doesn't play well with mortar- and can you imagine how many sanding discs your going to buy to remove 350' of tile glue? save yourself and tile over it. tile chippers from rental places are over rated, ask anyone who has actually used one on a well stuck tile floor.
I like your ideas best Joe, since yours is the easiest.
This is my In laws laundry/mudroom, so if the bond fails, I will have to hear it from my wifes 5 younger brothers and sisters for years.
Has your father done this plenty over the years?
Thanks
Jeff in PA
dancin with the devil putting in a floor for the inlaws
3m safest stripper
The floor we took out was in a fairly new strip center, been down for maybe 7 years. NO black mastic & the glue came up fairly easily with the sanding. It only took about 4 sheets of the course paper to get it to the point where it was ready for thinset. As for the rental tile removers, it depends alot on where you are renting them. We have done a couple other floors since then and found a main difference is to stay with the narrower 4" blade. It's still work but it goes a lot quicker & easier with the small blade & sure beats the hell out of a scraper.
Two recent experiences:
Restaurant with 1100 sq ft of carpet glued down over concrete. FloorCare USA (not sure if it's local or a national franchise) came in with a crew of three and some specialized equipment. Pulled the carpet in about 4 hours, leaving an incredibly sticky mess of glue on the floor. Used something similar to a rotary floor sander, except with diamond blades, and had all the glue up in another 4 hours. Next day, concrete polished and sealed. They did a great job and charged about $7.50 a square foot for everything. I don't see why this wouldn't also work on the black VCT mastic.
Residential basement with 900 sq ft of old 50's VCT. I did this one myself. The old tiles came up easily in about 3 hours. This left all the concrete covered in a thin but very stubborn layer of black, asphaltic (probably with asbestos) mastic. I rolled on about three gallons of mastic remover and let it sit overnight. The next day I and a helper spent about 6 hours scraping, scrubbing and rinsing the gunk off. It was miserable, filthy, backbreaking work that I would NEVER do again. But it did work. The concrete was spic and span and ready for the new floorcovering. The remover I used was Bean-e-Doo, a soy-based product. I thought it worked okay but have never used another product so I can't compare. I must say, though, there was really NO odor - which was a huge hit with the homeowner.
-Doug Ranney