Mastic - Tiling over

Good Evening,


I had two layers of vinyl and one layer of what I think was linoleum in the front hallway. It was chipped around the edges where someone had obviously had a go at getting it up. When I moved in there was this horrible rubber mat coconut coir thing in there.

I haven't done anything to it in the 5 years I've lived here but I wanted to tile it. So I used a heat gun to get the vinyl up, and the lino. But the lino was stuck down with this black tar stuff. I don't know if it's mastic or not because from what I can see mastic comes off in bits like glue? and this only gets sticky when it's hot, like tar. It's odd stuff because it seems like it was put down like a liquid rather than adhesive on the back of the tiles, because it wasn't fully covering the outside edge of the room, but at the same time there's no swirl in it so whoever put it down got 100% coverage with something that cools and sets solid pretty quick!

Anyway, I used Blue Bear Mastic Remover. It did OK, made an almighty mess but hey ho, I think it softened the top layer up but they say mop up afterwards, which was a big no-no nightmare it just seems to spread it. If I mopped it until it was all gone I think I'd be there a month non-stop.

I let it dry and bought a floor scraper, results of which in the photo. It does ok but it's a lot of work and as the floors a bit uneven it leaves dips and hollows.

My question is: can I tile directly over this? The black stuff has to be scraped off it doesn't exactly come off but it is soft and supple and leaves a residue on your feet/socks.
If I can't, can I put a primer over it and tile over that? If so what primer?

Also, that jug you see in the photo is Tar Remover from Chemiphase, from the smell of it I think it's just ridiculously expensive diesel x) I tried it, it ... I dunno, it might act as a bit of a solvent but I couldn't really tell the difference between it and just plain water to be honest.

Indigogo, good evening.

First, what age is the property? and

Second, was the lowest layer tiles or sheet lino?

Ken.

Hi Ken,

I think I know where you're going with this. Asbestos? It was built around 1956 I believe. And the lowest layer was linoleum. A brown stuff, similar to what they used in art at school to do prints except much thinner, if that rings a bell. 10inch by 10inch. The middle layer was a weird green colour with pink diamond argyle-ey pattern, and the top layer was a yellowy beige colour sort of like travertine with a pattern in it, that was glued down.

Indigogo, good evening, again.

Indigogo said:

I think I know where you're going with this. Asbestos?

Click to expand...

Yes, but there is also the problem that the black glue that was uses to stick down these tiles is also the Damp proof Membrane for the Concrete floor?? it is generally the only barrier between you and any water emanating from the Concrete floor??

There are loads of posts in here as regards this subject [Thermo-Plastic tiles] and the associated DPM

As an aside? did you get a check for the presence of Asbestos in the tile? and how did you get rid of the tiles? double bagged and take to your local Authority at a pre-organised date / time??

Ken.

You may be right but I checked under the carpet next door in the living room, and that's just bare painted concrete under the carpet. I just went back and scratched a bit to see if it was this black stuff painted over and it's not. Just bare concrete.

You're right, that's exactly what they are, I googled marley tile and that's what they looked like. Although luckily it was only the bottom layer.

I didn't know about the asbestos thing until I bought the blue bear mastic remover, I just bin-bag and binned it I had some left in the bucket I used so I bought an amazon asbestos tester thing, I'm waiting for it to arrive in the post.

What should I do in the meantime?

I have a similar job coming up on similarly aged property. So curious to know if it makes a difference if they are tiles or sheets of lino? Was either not around when they were still using asbestos?

On a similar note, what would you do then? Can you tile over the vinyl/lino?

I don't think you can tile over the lino directly, maybe ... pva and self-levelling over it maybe. I'm going to self-levelling over this crap.