Flooring woes

[mrsfluffytail]

We've finally decided on flooring for our kitchen/hallway and the old flooring has been taken up to allow access for the gas line to be installed.

We've discovered that under the 2011 vinyl, there's 2 layers of 1970s vinyl tile (blue and yellow) plus what we think is the original 1955 tiling.

The blue and yellow come up easily enough but the original blue tile needs scraping up which leaves behind the sticky adhesive.

Does anyone know how to remove this adhesive or should we just leave the tiles and install the new floor over it?

[mrsfluffytail]

Photo attached this time!!

[runningLou]

That looks like floorboards underneath in the pic?

What new flooring are you going for?

[mrsfluffytail]

Yes, the blue tiles are stuck directly to the floorboards. Some of them were taken up in the 1970s so it's patchy. We're putting down karndean with ply underneath.

I really just want a clean base for the new floor to go down on, currently it's flakey and dusty which is made worse by this adhesive.

[runningLou]

I really don't think that matters if you're going to put ply down anyway. The ply will cover all the little flakes/bumps and they should use some kind of sealant or leveller before putting down the Karndean.

As long as you can get it back to the floorboards I don't think the adhesive etc will be a problem.

[Palomb]

Those tiles sometimes have asbestos in. Have they been checked?

[mrsfluffytail]

The flooring man didn't think they were asbestos but no they haven't been checked.

They're not fibrous, very smooth single coloured. We'd been using the steam cleaner to lift them so they've been wet when removed.

[evrybuddy]

If it's adhesive on floorboards you could try spraying WD40 (spray nozzle can) on the sticky bits - leave for 10 mins (adjust time according to difficulty) and then scrape up gunk with a paint/wallpaper scraper.

Always worked for us with floor adhesives.

[ButteredToastAndStrawberryJam]

Oh dear. I had these stuck to my terracotta tiles in the hallway, I used a blade scraper then cleaned it with turps, then washed with hot soapy water. I know what you mean about cleaning it all off, I think I would have to, depending on the time you have of course, but with you covering any with ply, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

[mrsfluffytail]

Buttered out of interest, were they asbestos? (More than a bit concerned about this now)...

The floor man said to try a bit of talc to take the stickiness away. So we now have white powdered floor which smells of babies.... No longer sticky though. May have to start a new thread: how do I get talc off my kitchen floor

[Justwanttoweeinpeace]

We've just had Karndean laid and the fitter was determined underneath was super flat, we got the whole thing skimmed first.

Are they too thick to skim over? , looks like a big job!

[wowfudge]

You need ply over floorboards before LVT can be laid.

[ButteredToastAndStrawberryJam]

I'm not sure if they were asbestos or not, that bloody asbestos they put the stuff everywhere.

[mrsfluffytail]

Thanks, we've taken the majority up anyway. They're going to put 6mm ply down before the karndean. They said we could leave the tiles but it's so flaky and dirty, I wanted to clean it up a bit, especially under the cabinets which won't have the new flooring.