Best way to remove vinyl tiles from hardwood floor

[Gracie]

I am looking for suggestions on the best method to remove vinyl tile adhesive from a hardwood timber floor. We would like to sand and polish after we remove all the glue from the entire area. So far we have used soapy water and a scrapper – it is slow progress.

[maglite]

Hi,
This may help, we had the same problem except it was lino stuck to jarrah boards.
We used a BBQ spatula to get most of the old lino off....chip,chip,chipping away.
As for the glue i asked the guy who was sanding the floors really,really nicely if he could simply go for a coarser grit first up.No worries and the floor came up a real treat.

I suppose you could try a heat gun for the tiles themselves...but i cant help you there im afraid.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Steve

[vsquizz]

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=11167&page=1&highlight=vinyl

Cheers

[Gracie]

Thanks for your help, the job is nearly finished. I have been scrapping and cutting into the adhesive then using boiled water to scrub off the backing, I am going to give kero a go to finish to see if it's quicker. The lino tile peels off easily enough it is just the green thick backing that is a pain. One floor sander who came to quote on a sand and polished said some of the adhesive glue used asbsetos, so sanding is out of the question until the backing is totally removed.

[russ34]

whenever i hear this i feel compelled to say...if you use petrol or a flammable liquid to disolve the glue, keep smokers away !....i knew a tiler who is now dead because of this :(

[ozwinner]

whenever i hear this i feel compelled to say...if you use petrol or a flammable liquid to disolve the glue, keep smokers away !....i knew a tiler who is now dead because of this :(
From burning, or lung cancer??

Al :confused:

[Gracie]

Thanks for the tip - I tried a little bit of kero and no effect, must be water based adhesive???

[Dusty]

A little bit of kero????? Pour the stuff on. This glue is seriously strong stuff, so seriously strong methods are required to shift it.

As well as pouring on the kero, you'll also need to be sanding the floor at the same time, with very course 24 grit sandpaper.

It often takes me a day, to a day and a half, to remove all traces of glue from the average kitchen/dining room type area. And I have all the gear for doing so.

So, I'm afraid you'll have to do more than a little kero. Good luck.