Our kitchen remodel! Tile floor is finished (pic pg 4)!!!

[SpringChickens]

So my DH and I are in the middle of a kitchen remodel! We're replacing the floor in the kitchen, dining room, pantry, mudroom and laundry room with tile and we're going to paint the cabinets and replace the counter tops. We're doing the work ourselves to avoid going broke!

The floor which used to be in the kitchen and dining room was wood, but it wasn't laid right (story of this house...), so it was very warped and lifted and stained - long story short, it needed to go. We pulled that up on Saturday - in a 250 square foot area, there were a total of FOUR spots of glue holding the floor down (each one about the size of a baseball). Niiiice.

Obviously, that floor was EASY to remove, so we're now at the linoleum below it. Not so easy. We've removed 3/4 of the floor in the kitchen/dining room, but there's still considerable adhesive on the floor. Any good tips for removing linoleum adhesive? We are currently using a scraper for this purpose from Home Depot. We would rather not use solvent because of the fumes and we tried boiling water, but it didn't seem to help much. We're about ready to take out the torch and just melt it all...

Oh, these brilliant people also decided to add a wall in the kitchen - right on TOP of the existing flooring!! We're trying to decide what the best tool would be to cut away the wood floor from under this wall without doing too much damage.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!!

 

[Lesa]

I am not sure this tip would work with sheet linoleum- but it really worked on the "tiles". We used a wallpaper/steamer for removing wallpaper. It softened the glue underneath and they came right up...DH says sawsall for the wood along the wall. Good luck!

 

[SpringChickens]

Quote:
Thanks! We'll definitely try that!

 

[RoeDylanda]

Oh, good luck! I owned a house like that once, it seemed like 80% of the interior had been installed by vandals. Every time we took something down, or apart, it was a horror show behind/underneath. I second the wallpaper steamer idea, though you may need to leave it on longer-- one person steaming and one scraping with those heavy duty wide blades ought to do it. I found a small mallet helpful as well, to "encourage" the scraper now & then. Also keep lots of fresh blades handy!

I wish you the best-- you will love it so much when it's done right!

 

[SpringChickens]

Quote:
Thanks, I appreciate it! There are so many things which weren't done right in this house! We had to move one cabinet because they built it on TOP of the floor. That's ok though, it was easy to move because it wasn't connected to ANYTHING except a 2" wide strip of adhesive connecting the counter top to the wall. Oh, and two screws, too. *sigh* oh well. The floor is easily the worst feature of this house, so I will be thrilled when its done!! We ordered our tile last weekend and its supposed to come in by next weekend, so I guess I know what I'll be doing then!

I tried a hot iron today to get an idea of how well the wallpaper steamer would work, and it worked great! The iron doesn't have quite enough surface area, so we'll rent a steamer this weekend and finish it up quick!

Thanks again for the ideas.

 

[wolftracks]

OMG I remember that floor!!!!!! LOL

A house we rehabbed had that. I tried steaming and also had a heater going.

One night I couldn't sleep and went over with a hair drier and scraper and had half of it done by morning. Hubby was impressed and happy. I also used a hot glue gun with no glue to warm up some areas.

Oh and I also heated the scraper.

The wall problem depends on how the wall was put in, but if you can get everything right up to the wall, best thing I found to use was the drier and a very long screwdriver and hammer. Probably something much simplier, but I used what I had without having to buy another tool. One house that had the wall problem, we ended up having to leave what was underneth and up baseboard trim. It was going to be used anyway, so it made it easier.

 

[SpringChickens]

Quote:
LOL, I'm glad I'm not the only one!!

Yeah, I think we're just going to go up to the wall - cut off the wood and scrap up the linoleum right up to the base and call it good. When we tile the floor, it *should* be high enough to cover the board, and if not, the baseboard sure will.

My husband is convinced that he needs to buy a dremel with a special attachment to remove the wood flooring up to the wall. Of course, he would also have to buy this tool new (for around $150+) because obviously NONE of the 30 or so saws we have around the house (including a sawsall) would do the job well enough

 

[wolftracks]

OK I gotta go with your hubby.

When I was dating my husband he bought me the big.everything in it dremel and wrapped it and dropped it off to me at work. I was so excited to see that this (it really is great for removing tile) and couldn't wait to use it. All the women there laughed when he left and said things like "wow, just what you wanted huh?"............I told them heck ya! I was just so surprised I got the best one and that he had listened when I mentioned that I wanted one. The guys all tried to talk me out of it since it was a MAN's TOOL......I don't think so!

Trust me. There are so many things you can do with them and so much to go with them. I vote he gets it.

When my husband had to take old ugly broken tiles out of a shower he fell in love with mine.

 

[SpringChickens]

Quote:
You're REALLY not helping my case here!

I don't mind buying ONE new tool for the project, but this would be number 3. And my hubby is picky - he needs the best of everything, which is fine except we're going to go broke!! We already spent $1500 on a table saw and $350 on a used MK tile saw. We've spent over twice as much on tools as we have on the tile!!

Oh well - as he keeps saying, now we have the tools and won't have to buy them again. And that's a good thing, right?

 

[wolftracks]

Yep.....that's right

Go online and check sites that show dremel projects.

I do silver work (ok not lately) and I have used the dremel. Oh, great for polishing silver and also for sanding or cleaning in tiny places, or larger.

I have even used them to carve Ostrich eggs. I used to love to do those.

They come in handy when a bigger tool would do damage.

I have attachments for using at a grinder, router, drillpress.............ok long list.

When my husband bought me this one it was top of the line. I have 3 now.

Oh and don't get me started on recirocating(sp) saws.....................O M G !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They last a long time and for the money it's a great tool.