To ask if I can resurface/reuse old files found underneath bathroom lino??

[nomad5]

We're in the middle of renovating a 1950s brick terrace house. Plumber currently pulling out old bathroom so we can install new shower/tub and a toilet, and rearrange pipework.

I had told him we wanted to keep the linoleum floor that is currently there, as it's in excellent condition and has an in offensive pattern. Presumed there was just concrete underneath (ground and first floor of house both have concrete floors). He took out the shower and discovered these old tiles from the 1950s underneath!! He says the tiles are under the lino all the way round the bathroom.

Is it possible to pull up the lino and resurface/refinish them?? The colour in real life is quite nice. Rest of bathroom will be plain white. Or will they be fucked from the lino glue??

AIBU to want to do this??

Or should I leave the lino in place? Or, pull up the lino and the tiles and have the bathroom retiled?? Complete novice here....

House renovation needs to be finished in early Feb when we will move in!!

Dammit, typo in the thread subject....

I found old TILES under my lino, not old FILES. Although old files would be interesting too. Would be more interested to find money or gold ingots though....

If you can, I would they look brilliant. No practical advice though sorry

lruka yes they are lovely and there are extra boxes of the tiles stored in the house, we didn't know where they came from!

I think they would look so fab resurfaced/shiny again. Keeping the old pedastal sink as it's in great condition and good height for the DC. Planned wall tiling would be plain white or cream, also square. I think it would look fab and would save so much money but I have no idea if it's a good idea to keep them...

I'm literally just doing this myself now, although the tiles are a bit uglier and a lot older - yours are gooooorgeous!

It is totally possible, but it will take a lot of (wo)man hours. I think my space is just a little larger than yours but it's literally been little and often with gentle cleaning.

Can I ask what kind of residue is on top of the tiles (glue/lino backing/grout etc) and I'll give you my tips on what worked and what didn't in our place!

I think if you have a couple spare you should be OK, unless you are having all new bath shower toilet etc as the gaps in the tiling probably won't be the right size.

They could look lovely!
Carefully take up the rest of the lino, then clean the tiles.

Now you should be able to see how many are damaged and to check if you have enough spare ones. They will probably need regrouting and a good tile sealer will put a shine back on them.

Oh, and don't just chip at the lino with a chisel or screwdriver- you could gouge holes in the tiles or scratch them. Use a scraper to peel off the lino.

Ok so the old bathroom looks like this. We're keeping the sink and vanity for now. Tiles are (according to plumber's guess) all over the bathroom floor. There was never a toilet in the bathroom, (!!) so no tile gaps there, plumber has literally just finished boring the holes for the waste pipe through the old chimney! So the only gap in tiling is where the new bathtub will be covering anyway.

DH tried to pull a bit of the lino up and it was quite well stuck on. Plumber says he can pull it out (bathroom demolition part of what he's doing for us) but would it be better to do it carefully myself??? I need to give him an answer today if he's going to pull it out....

If I did it myself this weekend, would I just yank it off or use some kind of steam/solvent?

lovely! I hope they can be salvaged. I'm holding out for a secret parquet floor under the carpet in our 60s semi, but I don't think that particular Christmas Miracle will transpire.

Forgot to add photos....

The old boiler is gone too, having a new circulation pump thing attached to big boiler in the cellar.

sonders the adhesive is I think some kind of lino glue.

I guess the risk is that if we pull it all up and find gaps in annoying places/don't have enough spare tiles to patch/find damaged tile we would then have to either relay lino or pull the old tiles out and retile.

The new sanitary fixtures we're putting in would not require any adjustment to the existing lino ie all the gaps would be covered. But it feels wrong to leave that lovely tile underneath now that I've seen it...

Wd40 can be used to remove glue and sticky stuff.

There are also specialist sticky stuff removers but they would be more expensive.

I'd probably start with wd40 and then a steam.

You will probably need to reseal them after - that's easy, you just paint it on to the tiles and wait 12 hours

That's the good option in my experience! We have carpet tiles glued to ours (not in a bathroom thank heavens). The issue with glue removal is not the stickiness but the dehydration - so you need to get moisture back into it. Remove as much lino as you can by hand - do lots of scoring and take it slow - then use moist towels to hydrate the glue. It's important that they're not wet enough to form puddles, just enough to force water into the adhesive.

Then the adhesive should turn white/opaque be quite easy to scrape off using a tile or floor scraper.

Ours took between 6 - 12 hours to soak, so I'd literally lay the towels down one night and scrape in the morning, and relay the towels on the next section. Boring and tedious but worth it!

The bathroom has only ever been renovated once (the seller lived in it since it was built!!) in the 1990s. So my guess is that it was a lino glue applied to the tiles and then the existing lino layed over it.

Ok, so should I ask the plumber to pull out what he can and then I'll do the rest? Or should I tell him I'll pull it out?

So the answer is steam/wet/WD50 to pull the lino off, clean the floor (with what?) and then put sealant on? What about regrouting? Is that easy to do? Help!!

Please make sure these tiles don't contain asbestos. Given the age of the property it is a possibility that they do.

If the plumber pulls up what he can, but without chipping at it, then you work at the rest.
Tile sealer is thin and clear like water, you paint it on and leave overnight to dry.

Re grouting isn't difficult, but is a bit messy.
You would need to scrape out the old loose grout from between the tiles (you can get a special tool for this, but I found an old knife works well). Next you mix up the grout powder with water (or use ready mixed) and spread it over the tiles, pushing it into the joints.
Then you wipe off the excess - use a damp sponge. You will have to go over it a couple of times before it looks clean. Put the sealer on when the grout is totally dry.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgksjatWQU

The tiles are ceramic so surely they don't contain asbestos? DH says he looked at the box that the spares are in, no mention of asbestos.

Saw your thread title and came on to say check they aren’t asbestos as I’ve just hoped for wonderful parquet and found 50s asbestos tiles instead

If they say ceramic on spares box and tap like ceramic you’re probably fine. Worth thinking about asbestos generally and where it might be when renovating a 50s house though

ItsLikeRain yeah have been wondering that. When old wood panelling came off in the living room and I pulled back the wallpaper I was panicky about some fibre-y stuff in the plaster until DH pointed out it was straw.....!!

How do you get asbestos checked?? Can you get a guy out who looks at everything in your house or do you need to get each individual thing tested?

Straw!

It’s a tricky, annoying one. I had someone from a testing company around before we started and asked them to just look in the places they knew it to be usual, and test anything they thought. I had seen the tiles and were pretty sure they were asbestos, the ceilings were also textured, (actually just woodchip wallpaper, er... phew?) so they tested all that and looked at some other bits.

I also did a load of internet research so I’d be aware of where it might be, what it looks like etc, the Health and Safety Executive have some good info which is for commercial buildings but applies in the same way for houses.

Since the initial survey there are a couple of things I’ve wondered about so will probably get a sample and send them to be tested through a service when you can just post to them.

Prime offenders are - lagging round pipes/boilers, ceiling tiles, artex, in built in cupboard lining/doors, floor tiles, roof tiles (off the top of my head)

Hope that’s helpful

Thank you ItsLikeRain that is helpful. I think the ceiling panels on the top floor are possible candidates for asbestos so will get them checked.

Christ there's so many decisions to be made even on a simple house renovation!!

I would if it were my tiles remove them myself as you can trust yourself to be careful not to damage the tiles,but most builders in my experience just want to be in, do the job and get and out.
They are lovely tiles. Lino is usually all natural, mostly linseed with a backing and rather expensive.

Ok, for those who are interested - I've started removing the vinyl floor! I've got a heatgun and DH is also going to take a crack at the adhesive underneath with the wallpaper steamer.

Take a look at what I managed last night, just an hour or so of work.

It's definitely vinyl (rather than linoleum), it peeled off ok with heatgun and some elbow grease. However the papery backer and some kind of thinset/leveller remains stuck to the floor.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated....

It's going to look beautiful when its done!