How do I lift old vinyl floor tiles?

[MazDazzle]

I have a cement floor in my kitchen with old vinyl tiles. They’ve been glued directly on to the cement. How do I get them up?

I’ve tried prising them up with a wallpaper scraper, but it’s taking forever. I have a looong way to go. Anyone have any tips? I’ve small kids and pets and want rid of them ASAP so I can get the new floor down.

Laying the new floor over them isn’t an option as they smell horrific. There’s a strong chemical smell coming from the glue.

Heat with a hair dryer/paint stripper, then scrape off?

Yeah you need to heat them up to melt the glue.

Hot air gun (strips wallpaper) and some elbow grease.
Ain't gonna lie it's gonna take a few tries and burnt fingers but well worth it

Depends how old. You could disturb aspestos underneath.
You need to get a qualified person to let you know if it's safe or not.

I thought some older types of tiles contained asbestos rather than there being likely to be asbestos underneath? If you look up Marley tiles OP you should get an idea whether your tiles may contain asbestos.

I’ve had a quick google re. asbestos floor tiles and size/looks wise it certainly seems like it’s a possibility. I’m downing tools for now.

I’m wading through lots of conflicting info online and unable to get a definite answer, so think the best thing is to send away a sample for testing.

Hopefully it’ll come back negative.

Very sensible. We found some similar tiles in a small area under the carpet in the hallway of our last house. We just covered them up again as they were intact.

If you are sure that's where the smell is coming from and you decide not to take them up, it might be an option to use a stain blocking paint - Zinsser primer can also block smells for example. You can always write on the painted surface with a Sharpie to record what is there.

I sent away the sample today, so should get the results by the end of the week.

That’s good to know wow. I didn’t realise you could get such a thing. It’s definitely the floor that smells as we’ve taken the walls back to the brick and there was no smell until we lifted the (modern) wooden flooring. The few tiles I managed to lift smelled really bad. I think it’s the adhesive.

With any luck I’ll be able to have a go at them with my hairdryer over the weekend.

If the tiles are intact and you can get them up without damaging them - tearing, etc - then it should be safe to carry on removing them. You'll need to declare them at the tip and check what the rules are before you go. From memory I think they need double bagging and labelling.

If you don't want to do it yourselves, but don't want them left in situ you can get specialists in to remove and dispose of them.