Laying limestone tiles over old vinyl floor.....or remove first?

phoebe1989seb

Hi all,

We are about to lay some very expensive limestone floor tiles in the breakfast room (and later the soon to be built kitchen extension) of our new (old) house. Unfortunately the previous owners or indeed their predecessors laid sheet vinyl flooring over the concrete subfloor and used strong glue to do so. We have attempted to remove this before laying the tiles as we were concerned that the tiles would not adhere properly or may lift/the grouting crack if we leave the vinyl in place, but it is nigh on impossible to get up......even with a blowtorch. Additionally I have read reports that old vinyl may contain asbestos and as the floor may have been laid around the late 1970s/early 1980s I understand this is a possibility.

Can anyone advise whether it is a) safe to continue trying to remove the vinyl and b) whether it is ok to lay the limestone straight onto the vinyl please?

Many thanks x

keystone

I can only advise what I would do which is get it all up.

Cheers

bungle4by4

i had the same in my kitchen and got a very sharp scraper and spent 2 days on my knees shifting it. and then tiled over that.

Dont know what the harm, if any, would have been tiling over it. Just felt it was best to get it up.

tpt

get it up. you may well have adhesion problems but also limestone has a tendency to suck dye through it, its unlikely given the age of your vinyl but if it does lose any colour it may come through and shadow the tile.

buy a cheap sds drill and a chisel bit, get the room as cold as possible for a day (makes it less flexible) and the go at it at an angle and take your time.

Then prime the floor with an acrylic primer (NOT PVA) and use a good trade adhesive. make sure you use a white adhesive if its a light limestone.

southcoastrgi

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Hi all,

We are about to lay some very expensive limestone floor tiles in the breakfast room (and later the soon to be built kitchen extension) of our new (old) house. Unfortunately the previous owners or indeed their predecessors laid sheet vinyl flooring over the concrete subfloor and used strong glue to do so. We have attempted to remove this before laying the tiles as we were concerned that the tiles would not adhere properly or may lift/the grouting crack if we leave the vinyl in place, but it is nigh on impossible to get up......even with a blowtorch. Additionally I have read reports that old vinyl may contain asbestos and as the floor may have been laid around the late 1970s/early 1980s I understand this is a possibility.

Can anyone advise whether it is a) safe to continue trying to remove the vinyl and b) whether it is ok to lay the limestone straight onto the vinyl please?

Many thanks x

somehow me thinks you have answered your own question

Leif

I had vinyl floor tiles in almost all rooms, stuck down with some vile glue. The best method I found to remove them was to either use a wallpaper scraper and a hammer, or heat the tiles with a heat gun, and then use the scraper. Rubber gloves were needed as the glue was foul, and the scraper had to be thrown away. As regards asbestos, only those from a certain date range had asbestos, and as I understand it the amount was small, and it was the 'sort of not dangerous' kind even though HSE law requires removal companies to take precautions. You can send a sample of to be tested. My tiles from 1969 were free of asbestos, which I found out AFTER removing them. Ho hum.

dave82_2

Be careful of they are old they might contain asbestose

phoebe1989seb

Hi guys

Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions and advice. We had hoped to make a proper start on attacking the floor today (having been out visiting sick parents yesterday), but had a skip delivered on Friday and instead spent most of the day filling that, lol!

DH has invested in a lethal looking long-handled scraper though so hope to try this out over the next few evenings.....will report back to let you know how we get on

Thanks again x

keystone

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

DH has invested in a lethal looking long-handled scraper though so hope to try this out over the next few evenings.....will report back to let you know how we get on

I venture to suggest you might like to modify that sentence to "quite a number of evenings" . He'll need a large bucket of this too:



Cheers

frankthetank1664

Not sure of the risk there but I would remove these and prior to fixing would latex the floor with self leveling latex.

It will help in the long run!

As they say it's all in the preparation !