Howdy,
a local hotel just put in a new slate floor.
Turns out that the floor is unacceptable because it is:
a) too bumpy so that people are catching their feet and tripping
b) too bumpy to that room service can’t push the food trolley across the new floor.
The tiles are 12 x 12. The sub floor looks like a mix of wood and cement. I don’t know what they used underneath to fix the slate, but it seems to make sense that it is thin set. There is about 2000 sq ft of tile.
So any suggestions on how to pull up the slate with a minimum of effort and damage? What about removing any remaing thin set? Soak it in water?
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Cheers
M.
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Replies
I'll throw you a bump to help keep the thread alive, but I believe the floor is dead.
Unless the tiles were installed with a mastic adhesive, I can't imagine anyway of removing 12" x 12" stone tiles without some major damage. Even if you were able to salvage a small percentage of them, I can't see getting them free of the mortar.
Maybe remove it in sections? Clear the grout out of the perimeter of a 4' x 4' section and cut out the subflooring? (Re-installing can be another thread unto itself.)
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
It's not even close to being worth the effort. Since the slate is causing tripping problems, it sounds like un-gauged material, which is cheap crap to begin with. Couple that with the breakage you'll get trying to remove it, the time spent attempting to get the thinset off of it, and the labor to remove it, stack it, transport, and cull through it, and at the end, all you've got is a pile of maybe 400 SF of used, cheap, trip hazard.
Bob
Last ditch attempt, sand the h*ll out of it with a heavy and see what happens.
be sometimes ya just get lucky
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity