How do you remove vinyl tile and glue from hardwoods?
By THOMAS MORROW from Etowah, TN
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I assume you will be refinishing your floor? I removed some peel & stick flooring & dealt with the mess cleaning it up. My floor tiles were at least 30 years old (ugly!), so they were fairly brittle. They came up relatively easily using a plastic spatula that you'd use to patch holes with spackle. Do not use metal! I ran the spatula along the floor & removed the tiles. I removed the glue & much of the old varnish using mineral spirits, steel wool, the plastic spatula & lots of elbow greasel I found that pouring about 2 Tablespoons of mineral spirits on the floor, spreading it around with the steel wool & letting it sit for up to a minute helped dissolve the varnish & glue. It's a sticky mess! Work about 2 square feet at a time.
Mineral spirits is not as toxic as many stronger chemicals that could be used in this case, but I'll take the extra effort over the harmful effects of those stronger alternatives.
I removed vynyl linoleum from a plywood floor using a heat gun and a putty knive. The heat gun soften the linoleum and the adhesive so I could scrape it up. Time consuming but made for a nice clean floor with out using chemicals. Before I starteded I had the linoleum tested for asbestos. If you have asbestos in the vinyl you don't want to be inhaling asbestos fibers.
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I removed a peel and stick vinyl floor that was laid on top of a hardwood floor. The hardwood floor now has black marks around the edges where each vinyl square had been. How can I remove these black marks from the hardwood floor?
Peg from St. Louis, MO
I use an all-purpose, heavy duty cleaner called Lestoil for all kinds of things. It cleans scuff marks off of my kitchen floors and many other sticky type things. I would give that a try. I'd try a little bit full strength on a rag in some out of the way place first just to make sure. I get Lestoil at my regular grocery store. It has been around for at least thirty years. (10/10/2006)
The black stuff is a mixture of glue from the stickons and dirt. Use DeSolvit and then clean with an all purpose cleaner. God luck. (10/27/2006)
