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removing removing (?) linoleum glue

14 years ago

Hello!

I'm hoping someone out there might have some good advice for me. We have a 1926 craftman home with a bad late 80's/early 90's bathroom rennovation. We're trying to peel away (quite literally) some of this 80's fashion, and one of the items on our list is to replace the pergo laminate floor (which must have been on sale because it's everywhere!) with tile. Last night we lifted up some of the flooring to see what kind of subfloor we'd be working with, and discovered that underneath a dry, flakey layer of yellowing adhessive, we already have tile- and it's almost the exact same time that I was wanting to put in!

We scraped away at some of the tile to discover that it's in pretty good shape. I'm not sure if this will the photo will convey this, but there are square outlines in the dried gunk, which make me think that at some point, there were linolium squares directly on the tile, and that this gunk is leftover linoleum adhessive.

Scraping with a razor cleans up the surface of the tile, but I'm thinking that anything in the grout lines is going to be more of a challenge. Are there any solvents or solutions that anyone could recomment to make this process a bit easier?

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Comments (2)

raehelen
14 years ago
Not sure in this situation, because you want to try and save the grout, but when we removed the linoleum floor from cement we bought a remover that you roll on, let soak in for a while and then scrape.

After reading someone's wallpaper post, I was wondering if even fabric softener would have helped (and would have smelled better than the adhesive remover).

It's a horrible job, takes forever, and I'd be testing out a small section first to see if it was worth it. For the other (above ground level) bathrooms we'll just be ripping up the whole subfloor, and starting fresh.
lauren674
14 years ago
Might not have been the same glue, but we had a similar tile under square linoleum type tiles. I used a green scrubby, clorox clean-up and very hot water with occasional abbrsive cleanser. We were told there is an adhesive remover at home depot but this worked fine with lots of scrubbing. Also, let the hot water puddle and soak for 10-15 min on an area first to soften the glue.

After trying to repair the original floor, we ended up removing it and replacing with a similar new tile because of a big spread crack and slope at the toilet end of the room. Hopefully yours is a keeper!

Here is a link that might be useful: album of bathroom renovation
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Rudy- With flooring that old, there is a high probability that it (and/or) the adhesive contains asbestos. Before you disturb this any further, you should take a small sample to a test lab to determine whether it's present. Here is some general info: Asbestos in flooring
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Its use was phased out during the 80's. There is no way of knowing if your flooring contains asbestos without having a small sample tested in a certified lab. Seamless flooring, as described in your title, often had a layer of high percentage asbestos beneath the surface layer, and it is generally not possible to remove the flooring safely without professional help. You don't always have to remove this type of flooring for a remodel. Why don't you describe what exactly you want to do and I'll see if I can help.
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