removing vinyl tiles off wooden floor?

[Livinzoo]

There is a tool called a floor scraper. Takes a bit of effort to get under the nasty stuff, but should help get the bulk off. We used it where they had glued down laminate flooring in my entrance way. Than just sand and finish.

 

[Royd]

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Oh good! My late husband installed hardwood flooring and did some reinstallations of old gym flooring (with the painted lines); he just used his large sander with a heavy grit to get the surface off and even it out. When you get enough tile goo off, you could rent a machine to sand off the rest.

And the pic of the floor is really nice, it should turn out well

This is my suggestion. If you have a 3 or 4" wide belt sander, start with some really course grit paper...#60 seems to be the coursest available, in the big stores.

There is a tool, called a belt cleaner. It looks like a giant gum eraser. Usually, it comes attached to a flat board,which acts as a handle.

This thing really does work and will completely clean the trash out of a belt, if you use it frequently. So, instead of loading a belt up with tar and pitch, in 5 minutes and throwing it away, you'll still be using the same belt an hour later. I've also found that it works best, if applied at the front roller.

After you've cleaned the floor of the glue, then, go with the professional floor sander.

Be very careful, if using solvents other than mineral spirits or turpentine, which is rather expensive....They are, usually, very volatile and can damage your lungs, with extended use, not to mention, killing a few braincells, along the way.

 

[agnes_day]

ok...so i could potentially just rent a sander to get the adhesive off after i pull up the tiles? because my kitchen is TINY and i hate the idea of being in there with all those chemicals in the air.

 

[TyrannosaurusChix]

i dont recommend you rent a professional sander just because if you dont know what you are doing, you can seriously ruin your floor. it takes literally NO TIME to put a big round freakin circle into it.

 

[agnes_day]

oh wow..never thought of that!!!

that wouldnt endear me to the old husband, i imagine.

 

[Royd]

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They do make a flat vibrating floor sander. the drum sanders are the ones which takes a light, quick hand...And then, you still have to rent an edge sander.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Before you start sanding this gunk up, you might do a little research to see what you are dealing with. Floor tiles of a certain age have asbestos in them. You wouldn't want to stir all that up. Either way, you should wear a good quality respirator and perhaps safety goggles. Hate to get all that stuff in your systems.

 

[Royd]

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If you are planning to rent a hand held belt sander, just go to a few pawn shops. The price would be the same.

Since you say that your floor is small, you could easily do it with a belt sander.

 

[BC Gal]

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They do make a flat vibrating floor sander. the drum sanders are the ones which takes a light, quick hand...And then, you still have to rent an edge sander.

Yeah, sorry for not being clear, I meant the drum sander. Lol, once I tried to start up the orbital sander and it tossed me into the wall! The drum sander is still a heavy machine but goes in a straight line and does not "take off" like the orbital sander can.

Like Royd said, if you have a small area, use a belt sander, starting with a really heavy grit.

 

[Siler]

When we moved in here we had whole floor linoleum that was put down in either the 50's or 60's. It was NOT coming off so we had to take 2 weeks with wood chisels and hammers and remove the linoleum one piece at a time. I wanted to chisel a hole in someone's head by the time we were done. In the areas under the old cabinets were old asbestos tiles that we removed very slowly and very carefully. Those were obvious because they were about 12x12 and thick like porcelain tiles. They came right up. Below all of that were huge sheets of oak plywood that covered up what we can only imagine was bug damaged original wood planks. We put in 9x9 porcelain tiles over the oak plywood and it looks amazing and the work was well worth it in the end. Good luck!