Removing Vinyl/Lino Floor Tiles

gibbo888

Hi

What is the best way to remove vinyl/lino florr tiles?

I have used a wallpaper scraper and flat knife to get them up, but after 1 hour and lots of swearing, i have only managed to remove 5 tiles!

I am really struggling, is there any tips please to help me out?

Mike

economiser

I remember having a similar problem when I moved into my house 30 years ago removing tiles from our kitchen floor. I used a blow lamp which softened them enough to remove with a scraper. Still a bit messy but it did the job.

I expect someone will come up with a more modern solution but if not you could give it a try.

gibbo888

Cheers

I will give it a try tonight.

wizzer

I don't want to scaremonger but I recall that old vinyl tiles used to contain elements of asbestos. As always, it's only when the fibres are released into the air that they can become potentially dangerous so ordinary lifting should pose no problems at all.

As I say, wouldn't want to over-emphasis the danger but it's surprising where asbestos often lurks.

bristolboy25

What about trying a steamer? Mine were the marley type so came up fine with just a scraper but steamers have alot of uses.

jakemuk

get the blow lamp em on

well heat up the glue/adhesive

and then will come of easy

bigburd

I read somewhere that the easiest way to do this is to cover them with a towel and put a hot iron on them until the glue stuff holding them melts a bit. I think you'd be best to turn the steam off if it's a steam iron. The towel stops the vinyl melting onto your iron obviously!!

bennygod

Had the same problem with my kitchen floor. The best solution that I came up with was using a hot air blower (about £10 from B&Q) and a massive scraper designed for smoothing of larger areas on a wall when big holes are filled (a bit less than £10). The scraper was almost a foot long. The best technique involved using two people. One mans the hot air blower and runs it over the area (not heating it so much as to make the tile bubble or deform) The other has the scraper and wiggles it under the tile from the corner in. You can also use a hammer to help send it under further. Now it takes a while to hone the technique but it really comes up trumps. The lesser walked areas didn't even need the air blower on it. Good luck!