Bodger tries to clean Quarry Tiles before levelling compound

[mrbodge]

Added for prominence: Bodger tip! A DIY nutter comes up with something that works quite well (and something toxic that works very well)! After scraping off the easy stuff with a wallpaper scraper or one of the many mechanical scrapers around, the real stuck down bad stuff which comes up in tiny clumps and threads can be cleaned up easily with Brillo pads soaked in white spirit. The really nasty idea is at the end because you really want all the safety gear if you're going to play with it. I only used a bit and I'm high as a f****** kite.

I want to lay over these tiles with something pretty like slate, but I'm having a real hard job cleaning them up. Can those with the know help?

I lifted the three layers of vynal tiles with a heat gun. This left a horrible glue residue everything sticks to making my floor dirty and horrible. This sucks as I still have to live in this place while doing the work.

Here are the things I tried:

HG Floor Glue Remover: Absolute joke. Barely weakened the glue at all. Layed it down for the 15 recommended minutes and scraped, hardly any glue came up. So I gave it another chance and left it for a day, same result.

Low-Odour White Spirit: This is the best thing I tried so far. It's far from perfect but gets a good 80% of the gunk off with scraping.

Angle grinder with wire brush attachment: Using this in combination with Low-Odour white spirit makes for tiles that look clean apart from the pitted parts.The trouble is, once the spirit evaporates they immedately begin to collect gunk again like there is still glue on them, except you can't see what it's sticking to.

Cilit-Bang: Not bad actually since it's just a cleaner. About as effectivr as HG floor glue remover.

I have ordered a jesus saw (Bosh Multimaster knockoff) attachment the rigid and flexible scrapers. Can't wait to try them out when they arrive but I'm not expecting miracles.

Should I put on a respirator and dump a bunch of muriac acid on them? I'm at my wits end, this small room has eaten about 20 hours of my time so far.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Have you tried a steamer?
This will soften the glue, so you can then remove it, working a small area at a time like removing wallpaper.

 

[Johnmelad502]

Try the heatgun on it...

 

[mrbodge]

Have you tried a steamer?
This will soften the glue, so you can then remove it, working a small area at a time like removing wallpaper.

When acetone, caustic soda and white spirit aren't moving it I have my doubts about steam... I did try boiling water. Complete fail.

Try the heatgun on it...

Well that's what got the vynal tiles off. I grabbed my digital camera to show you how much this doesn't work for me but broke it by dropping it running down the stairs. Ugh.

Anyhow. I gave 5 minutes of 2000W heat to 2 quarry tiles and scraped with both a clean rigid wallpaper scraper and a flexible one. The glue survives. It's not giving up easily. My only hope now is for the jesus saw, which will try when sober and less likely to drop.

 

[mrbodge]

And to top it off, I then went out to put out recycling and door closed behind me. Tried "stick in letterbox" trick but pulled down the lock latch so I hadda boot it in then use wickes panel adhesive to rebuild the frame and no-nails to put the lock back on the door. So much for early bed!

 

[regsmyth]

Have you tried petrol?

(Turn off the heatgun first).

 

[mrbodge]

Have you tried petrol?

(Turn off the heatgun first).

Suppose it might work being a solvent. Do you think it will work better than brick acid?

 

[mrbodge]

I tried two more things:

Acetone. This removed it like magic if left for 15 minutes but it's a pretty expensive way to do the cleanup.

The Bosch PMF 180 E with ridgid blade. This tore it to bits, removed a lot of crud that was very hard to remove. It will still need wiping down with something like acetone or toulene afterwards tho,

 

[foxhole]

Why remove? , just sheets of ply over it.

 

[mrbodge]

Why remove? , just sheets of ply over it.

Can I do this? The floor is very uneven in places and quite large. I have uploaded two photos so you can see just what a mess the tiles are.


View media item 22379View media item 22380
The two "clean" (well almost) ones were cleaned by doing this:

1. Putting white spirit on sponge and swabbing tile.
2. Using Bosch PMF 180 E with attachment ATZ 52 SF. Also tried ATZ 52 SFC/ (the flexible version). Go all over the tile both horizontally and verically to make sure you scraped every part of area.
   [*]Give one final swap down with white spirit on sponge and swab the Bosch blade with it too.
   

The flexible version didn't help much. It's not good for this job. I think maybe you're supposed to use it on caulking or similar.

I cleaned up a block of about 10x20 by hand the other day using the same method except I used wallpaper scrapers not a Bosch Multimaster Jesus Saw. The Bosch sped up the job considerably. Anyhow, I could do with a faster way, it's manageable now but it's still going to be a day long job at least. The glue isn't coming up in nice clumps just tiny pieces, sometimes even only a few threads.

 

[foxhole]

Have you tried paint stripper or evo stick adhesive remover.

 

[mrbodge]

Have you tried paint stripper or evo stick adhesive remover.

The new paint stripper is rubbish the EU made them take the diwhatever cancer making thing in it was which made it work so well. Haven't tried evo stick.

Am considering dumping a very strong solution of caustic soda on it. Trying to find the best way is even getting entertaining since this isn't the only room I'm working on.

Another idea was to use the diamond delta grinder for the Bosch.

Might try a few on different squares, though most of them have been down now (not sure if I should or )

 

[foxhole]

If the tiles are uneven you might as well dig the lot up and screed to level before new tiles.

 

[mrbodge]

If the tiles are uneven you might as well dig the lot up and screed to level before new tiles.

I have to live with this room like it is for a while. Some idiot who may have been me or may not decided it would be a good idea to start ripping off the vinyl tiles so might as well finish the job.

Can't I just put level compound on top?

Don't you need like 5" of screed?

I don't know what's underneath them

And more tests: I dumped caustic soda at drain unblocker strength on the tiles, it was maybe 10% more effective than just white spirit

BUT I found the ultimate.

Brillo pads soaked in white spirit cleaned them up real quick. What I can't understand is why when I keep washing them they are still giving up loads of black stuff, they look clean, it must be coming from the grout, any tips for cleaning out the grout?

 

[mrbodge]

I found the even more ultimate. Turns out I had some Xylene in an aerosol can lying around. Now this stuff is NASTY. Don't play with it use the safety gear but it erased everything in sight like it never existed.

Toluene which is more readily available in the UK here probably would too.