Wife and I are attempting to restore a hallway wood floor in a 1930s house, which some previous owner covered with 1940s type of asphalt tile squares. This tile has a backing of some kind of black tar substance. The tile surface comes up ok with a blade, but I need some advice on how to remove the residual black mess which sticks to the wood floor. I am guessing that some type of solvent will be necessary, because no other tool seems able to touch the asphalt without demolishing the floor.
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http://www.franmar.com/
I haven't used this company yet but plan to when I get to removing the same tile you are. I'm told your left with a gooey mess to clean up but that's better than the alternatives. The black adhesive is called cut-back and it is asbestos based so don't sand or grind it off. Modern ceramic tile adhesive will pop loose taking some of the cut- back with it. So you need to remove the cut-back before tiling.