I am hoping to remove asphalt tile and the adhesive from an oak hardwood floor. The goal is to refinish the oak flooring. A local home store recommended a solvent to remove the adhesive that did not come up with the tile. When I tried this in the first room I attempted, the solvent did dissolve the adhesive but the resulting slurry had a stain like property that allowed it to seep into the grain and made it impossible to sand out.I am trying to avoid this on my second attempt. I heard that dry ice will freeze the adhesive and it will pop off with the tile. Any help on the best way to do this will really be appreciated.
Thanks
Gary
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Replies
You could probably just sand it with a heavy grit pad on a floor sander. I've seen some heinous stuff taken off that way if there's enough meat over the tounge and groove to stand heavy sanding.
http://grantlogan.net/
But you all knew that. I detailed it extensively in my blog.
Thanks for the tip. Ace sent me off the last time with a 60 grit belt for the sander that just gummed up from the adhesive. I am guessing your are suggesting 20 to 30 grit for the first pass or until the adhesive is gone?
I am guessing your are suggesting 20 to 30 grit for the first pass or until the adhesive is gone?
Yup.http://grantlogan.net/
But you all knew that. I detailed it extensively in my blog.
I've had good luck with using a carbide scraper first, then sanding. Of course if you have a large room, it won't be much fun scraping by hand... Good luck.
You have to use rough stuff, I'm talking 3 1/2 or 4 grit, open coat. Then 24 to take out the scratches and then 80 to finish. Don't worry about taking off wood, you'll be happy to see the wood. You won't get much wood because under that cement/glue/paste is the old floor finished with shellac. That stuff don't sand any better than the glue/cement/paste that held the asphalt on. If it was finished in shellac and I'd bet it was, that'll give you a harder time than the glue stuff. LOL.
Thanks for the insight on the shellac and the grits. So far the roughest grit I've found is a 24 at HD. I'll be checking the other rental places next. This is all new to me and after one aws_ _ _ _ already I was getting a little gunshy to jump in on highly visible room. The living room. The first was the smallest bedroom and there was a time deadline so I didn't have time to play to get it right. After it was done, there was a kindly commented "it has a rustic character look to it. After some more experience I'll redo the room to match the rest of the house.
How old is the adhesive? Surprisingly, some of the really old ones are actually water soluable. Nothing else works on them, but water works like magic.
-- J.S.
The house was built in 1949 and I am guessing the tile is 1960'ish vintage. Is that in the range of water based adhesive?
Thanks for your input.
Gary
No, sorry. The water based stuff that I've found is all pre-WWII. It can't hurt to test a little, but it's a long shot.
-- J.S.
Edited 4/14/2008 7:23 pm ET by JohnSprungX
I'll assume you plan on sanding the floor after the removal of the tile. Go to your local rental store and ask about the tile removal machine for wood and concrete. The difference between wood and concrete is the placement of the blade. This machine is awesome. I have used it on concrete floors twice, but never tried wood. It works great on concrete and is advertised to work as well on wood. I assume hardwood would be better. Most of the adhesive will come off with the tile. Then sand. If you don't remove most of the adhesive with the tile you are going to go through alot of sanding belts as the adhesive melts from the heat and gums them up fairly quickly. Good luck!!!
Last time I encountered that problem here's what I did, hope it helps.
I started by scraping everything I could off by hand and sanding with the coarsest paper I could get for a drum floor sander. I think I may have been 16 grit.
I estimated 1 sheet of paper per pass, on a 16' wide floor I figured 16 sheets, and used a sandpaper cleaning stick to extend the life of the sandpaper. I didn't use all of the sandpaper, but close. Then proceeded as usual with following grits, and the floor turned out great.
Here's some pics
http://web.mac.com/lovetotweet/Simon_Ott_Carpentry/More_Renovations_Photo_Album.html
Ott