What’s the easiest way to remove self-adheasive tiles? I’m remodeling a small bathroom and need to remove these tiles which are ontop of a concrete floor. I know some tiles will pop easy but others may need some “gentle persuasion.” I’m thinking a heat gun but worried that it will be too time consuming, I’d rather use a chisel and hammer. What other options do I have?
Thanks, Dave
Replies
Dry ice will work sometimes, if you can find any. Shrinks the tile and makes it pop off. If not, its fun to play with anyway. I just use a flat shovel.
Hi Dave ,I have found that a propane torch with a paint burning flame spreader works great.I have it fitted to a 20lb tank and use a 3" stiff drywall knife in the other hand
Heat...
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
I have used a flat shovel, then cleaned up the left over stickum with thinner or solvent that dissloves the stuff. You can also just fill over it with fixall and lay a new floor on that.
heat.
just did some.
heatgun.
don't think of tryin anything else if you want speed.
So my suggestion work did it...
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
Once saw a lady use a large aluminum stock pot, something like 16" diameter and the same high, filled with boiling water to loosen the tiles. She had two of them and kept the second on the stove rewarming. She scraped up a tile after sliding the pot to the next in line. I was amazed at how fast it went.
thast pretty interesting. Thanks for passing it on. Maybe I'll try it next time. I've already finished that job." Looks good from my house!!"
Heatgun or a heat plate. Heat plate is better, but harder to find.
Careful if those are older tiles.
Many of those were asbestos tiles, I have heard.
Wear a mask.
I'm pretty sure that asbestos went out before peel'n'stick came in. Good thought though.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
We put some peel and stick yellow with black lines linoleum tiles in the kitchen in '72 and they told us when we considered removing them a few years ago that they may have asbestos in them.
Good to know that they should not. Thanks. <g>
They will peel easy with anything sharp, I think, if in pieces, if someone ever want's to do it.
The tiles I pulled up were pretty old the HO said 40 years or so . They came up easy with just my painters "five in one". Took me about 20 minutes.....in a 8 by 13 ft room.
Anyway thanks for all the input I figured the heat gun was the best way to go but was just wondering if there was any other creative way to do this knee and back breaking job." Looks good from my house!!"
I saw a scraper that looked like a good spatula with a ground edge and the handle had threads to receive a pole handle. Would save the back and knees. Believe both Lowes and HD had them.
Usually it wasn't the tile that had the asbestos in it- it was the black mastic that held the tiles down. The operative word there is "usually", though.....
Bob
you're right about the black stuff and the asbestos....same thing with exterior siding." Looks good from my house!!"
Heatgun, or I like the pots and pans idea- slower but more thorough and even. Only one thing- leaves behind a very gooey, sticky adhesive residue. Got a picture of my wife with her shoes stuck to the stuff like she'd walked in fly-paper...Fortunately, it was taken care of by the dust when we took down the old plaster ceiling!
re - Fortunately, it was taken care of by the dust when we took down the old plaster ceiling!
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And that's another potential source of asbestos in older homes !
Ouch !
One small piece of advice to all.....
When I started this job I noticed the old pieces (the black residue) of tile started to stay behind which is sometimes expected. Unfortunately the cement flooring was a little " crumbly". I knew the tile would never stick so I went with the 1/2 inch luan subflooring. This adheared better than the tile would have even after a couple of washes with muriatic acid. After the luan was placed, I put down a skim coat of tile mastic. I put the adheisive on with a 1/16 trowel and removed it with the flat edge. This gave the peel and press tile an advantage to adhear to the point where they didnt have to be pressed again or rolled. Just the weight of me kneeling on them was enough, I tried pulling them up. Some may frown, some may disagree, but I used the adheasive rather than a kerosene heater due to the fact that the room temp wasn't quite warm enough to just place the tile. When I first started, I said to myself these tiles will never stick so this worked great. Hopefully this comes in handy for someone else.
" Looks good from my house!!"
Mapei makes a black-colored mastic that is rated for applying over the cutback glue residue.
Ultrabond Eco 600.
However, I have no idea where to find the stuff.
Their web site is not very helpful in this regard.
We were actually quite careful with dust control, every time we took anything down. Everybody was in HEPA respirators, the room blocked off and a furnace fan in the window withdrawing air until all the spoils were outside and the room was completely mopped up with sweeping compound. But you can't work on an old house without some asbestos & lead exposure.
re -
you're right about the black stuff and the asbestos....same thing with exterior siding." Looks good from my house!!"
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For those needing to remove this black cutback adhesive from concrete floors, please see my post in the Tools section...