Sunday, September 04, 2011

 

Some Success!

My goal through the holiday weekend was to remove the tiles from my office. In my arsenal of tolls I have a scraper, heat gun, chisel, and hammer. I had heard this job can be a real bear so I wanted to give my plenty of time to complete it (and take breaks as to not lose my sanity).


I was able to get it mostly done, save for some cleanup around the baseboards and the closet area (which is more because I have stuff I'm too lazy to move. I also still have tomorrow. The plan is to pick up a product called Bean-e-doo (it's made from soybeans) on Tuesday as it will turn all of the black mastic into oily goo. From then, it's time to degrease and clean. Finally after that I can explore some surface treatment options. Here's a closeup:

In my case it went pretty well. Some tiles came up a lot easier than others and I learned there are definitely some subtleties to proper flooring scraper technique. Fortunately, there was only one spot with about 8 tiles that required me sitting on the floor with a chisel and hammer. 

As for surface treatments, right now I'm leaning towards a satin finish acrylic sealer. I think the "wet look" epoxy will be a little too much and I'm worried about stripping it later if I don't like it.


Saturday, September 03, 2011

 

It Begins!

This has been on the plate for a while now. Cliff May homes were built with asphalt composition tiles in throughout the house. A black, asbestos-containing, super-strong mastic was used to adhere them. I love the look of the tiles that my house came with. Instead of black, I had a deep ox-blood color. Unfortunately, when one of the previous owners installed carpet the tack strips obliterated the edges of all the rooms. In my office I have decided to remove the tiles and go down to the concrete to see how that feels for a while.


I couldn't wait so I did a test spot with crappy adhesive remover. It took the mastic right off. I think the Bean-e-doo will work even better.




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