Posted on 04/21/2008 8:13:51 AM PDT by grellis
I am having a very difficult time removing 12"x12" vinyl floor tiles in my kitchen.
Post 3 is a good idea, but so is adhesive remover, the stuff is CAUSTIC.. use gloves, and a good mask and open windows if you use this stuff.. bit it will eat up even the strongest adhesive.
Don’t sweat the luan, its cheap and easy to replace anyway.
Did you install these tiles? We found that self-adhesive tiles don’t stick well enough in a bathroom so pulled them up and put down real adhesive. When we had to remove them 5 years later because the toilet seal had rotted some of the wood...the adhesive was stuck so well, it was taking hours. We pulled off the top 3/4 plywood sheets and replaced the works. Was a much better surface afterwards anyway. Shrug, if you’ve got 1/4 luaun down, would that be an alternative?
Get two metal-edged putty knives and two hammers and invite your spouse/friend/child to help.
Open the windows and doors, the smell from burnt glue is nasty.
Anyways, flash the top of the tile. Keep moving and come back, such that the heat goes through the tile, with as little burning as possible, then it softens the glue.
Use a flatbar, or Wonderbar, instead of a putty knife. As you are heating and softening you can nudge the bar forward and put up pressure on the tile. Heat plus mechanical force.
You can get buy with a hair dryer. A real heat gun is better. The torch is the fastest.
Some torch kits come with a flat, duckbill attachment that instead of a pinpoint flame, produces a wide flat flame. Get it if you can.
Sit on a milk crate and save your knees.
Beer.
Beer helps too. It's a good beer job. Actually, if you use a cooler, you can sit on it and then stretch when you get up to get another beer.
If replacing only some of the underlayment, this stuff is really good for leveling things out before re-tiling:
call a contractor, open a beer, and watch him work.
review
I tried the “heat gun” thing, but it was just too slow.........and my electric meter was spinning like mad........
What are you putting down instead?
We just did Pergo in the kitchen. It’s dream flooring and went right over the old stuff.
There ya go.... LOL!
I spent three days removing the old flooring, it was a pain, then my contractor for ceramic told me, he would just put the new tile over the old floor. I had big scrapers, and roofing tools, the thing that worked the best was the heat gun. Inch by Inch, it took a long time.
You also need someone to hold your beer, you can't duct tape it properly with one hand ; )
Try a little acetone, be careful, vent well, wear a mask and gloves, IF you decide to use it. It will usually loosen most glues, including super glue types.
Getting my previous home ready for sale a couple years ago I needed to replace the wood floors in the entry way, dining room, and hallway. Knowing that the vinyl kitchen floor was a big downside when someone viewed the home, I just ran the new wood floor right over it.
UGH... you just brought back bad memories of remodeling our older home. There was actually about 3 layers of the crap on my floor. Just backbreaking work, is all I can remember...
The heat gun (fumes notwithstanding) - is faster, but messier and gooey.
I did dry ice on standard wood subsurface and heat gun on a metal (US Navy Frigate) floor ("deck")...
Forget all the stuff above. This is what you want:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=37073
It’s the only thing that will get up impossible tiles or linoleum, I know, I’ve did it about 5 months ago. You’ll need the air scraper, a compressor, and hose. The scraper comes with a 4” blade, it shouldn’t break, but get another just in case. You hook up the scraper, fire up the compressor, and just push it along under the tiles. It should zip them right up.
Some places may rent this, but I had no such luck, I had to buy it. It’s very useful.
Work fascinates me. I can sit and look at it all day long.
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