I have some recycled flooring that was originally laid with bitumen that I need to remove. I was thinking to get a mechanic's part washer, fill it with white spirit, soak it for a while and then brush it off. Has anyone tried this? Anyone have any better way to remove it? I plan to screw it down when I install it, rather than gluing it.
Removing bitumen from recycled flooring
- Thread starter sirocosm
- Start date
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I did a load of parquet flooring years ago by gently warming them with a heat gun and then scraping it off with scraper , If you are screwing it down you don’t need it to be completely clean,
As an experiment, try the opposite direction to above. Instead of warming it, put it in the freezer and see if the bitumen goes brittle and chips off.
Lidl belt sander and many 40 grit belts would remove it. The challenge would be to stop the belts clogging. Again, the cooler you keep it, the better chance of success.
Google 'parquet bitumen removal' - put boards in the post to the company that specialises in this, pay money, wait.
One method I saw in passing is dry ice blasting.
Lidl belt sander and many 40 grit belts would remove it. The challenge would be to stop the belts clogging. Again, the cooler you keep it, the better chance of success.
Google 'parquet bitumen removal' - put boards in the post to the company that specialises in this, pay money, wait.
One method I saw in passing is dry ice blasting.
I did about 12 sq metres of flooring some years ago
Made a simple box to hold one piece on my workbench and used a cabinet scraper to clean the bitumen off…it was very hard and brittle and came off easily did the lot in a few days then repeated with belt sander on the top face cleaning off years of grime,vomit,alcohol etc ( it had been in a nightclub in sheffield (limit club))
Ian
Made a simple box to hold one piece on my workbench and used a cabinet scraper to clean the bitumen off…it was very hard and brittle and came off easily did the lot in a few days then repeated with belt sander on the top face cleaning off years of grime,vomit,alcohol etc ( it had been in a nightclub in sheffield (limit club))
Ian
adidat
I will not buy anymore tools...
This brings back memories of the job we done on the council, back in the early 80s! Whole ground floor removed, from graded listed building due to a flood, and taken back to mill where, after lengthy decisions with health and safety chap, it was decided to cut the bitumen remnants off using the rip saw. (flooded building had been dried out with industrial dehumidifiers for the previous 6 months so blocks dry) It took some setting up and ingenuity, as both crown guard and riving knife had to be removed to accommodate the new, sacrificial wood padded, spring pressure guard arrangement. Pressure guards were set in the "t" slot of table, to left of blade, in front and behind blade. That workpiece was fully held and covered through feed in, cut, and outfeed. Machine started up and blade brought up slowly into pressure pad to the predetermined height. The cut was set to the minimum loss on stock cutting mainly into the bitumen with the lack of the smell of burning tar surprising all left in the mill/joinery shop, good extraction to seperate building probably helped. No-one counted the pieces but it was estimated to be well over a thousand, two full days with both machinists taking it in turns the feed and stack. I dont think that will be allowed to happen now! Blade survived too, though it took some soaking in paraffin to get the muck off! Never saw the finished job.
Lard
Established Member
I had to do the same job many years ago and, if I'm remembering correctly, spent ages seemingly getting nowhere and losing the will to live. Having tried several methods I then remembered my resonating tool which made much lighter work of it. From memory, it was not perfect, but completely suitable for me to reuse in our bungalow.
A few years back I was given some reclaimed solid oak flooring and once again, the resonating blade made light work of removing the glue from the back. Obviously nowhere near as messy as bitumen.
A few years back I was given some reclaimed solid oak flooring and once again, the resonating blade made light work of removing the glue from the back. Obviously nowhere near as messy as bitumen.
I have one of those. I last used it to tune a piano. It was less successful trying to tuna fish.
TheUnicorn
Established Member
do you mean an oscillating tool / multitool, or am I on the wrong wavelength (no pun intended)?
Lard
Established Member
Yep, that's the man.
Thanks for the ideas. I have different batches from different places, I plant to mix and match to make patterns in the floor. I have about 80 meters to do. Some are quite brittle, and some are more gooey. I tried Bingy Man's suggestion of using a heat gun. It seems to work OK, and softens even the brittle ones enough to easily scrape them off. The rest comes off pretty well with solvent if you do it right after. The Freezer sounds like a an interesting idea, but there is no way my wife is going to let me put tar covered flooring in our freezer.
Stigmorgan
Established Member
Not wanting to be a scaremonger but be careful, old bitumen adhesives contain asbestos, some of the areas I have to monitor at work are the original tiled floors, if any lift or get damaged I have to get someone in to fix.
Keith 66
Established Member
I did a pile of teak T&G floorboards last winter much of the 2 tons was covered on the underside with pitch, Didnt appear to have any fibrous material in it at all. I did wear a good respirator anyway as it was a filthy job.
I tried scrapers, old chisels the lot. Do not even think of solvents or heat as it will just melt & rejuve the stuff.
But the answer was a BOSCH Power scraper with wide blade, I ground the sharp edge of the blade off with a tiny square edge & radius on the corners. It absolutely ripped the stuff off in a shower of chips.
The job went better when it was much colder as the pitch gets more brittle & shatters more easily.
Once the pitch was cleaned off i then had to punch the oval nails out of the tongues.
I reckon it took me three full weeks to clean the lot off. But running the stuff through the thicknesser afterwards & seeing the clean teak appear definately made it worthwhile!
Unfortunately the Bosch power scraper is now out of production but if you can find a secondhand one they are definately the tool for the job.
I tried scrapers, old chisels the lot. Do not even think of solvents or heat as it will just melt & rejuve the stuff.
But the answer was a BOSCH Power scraper with wide blade, I ground the sharp edge of the blade off with a tiny square edge & radius on the corners. It absolutely ripped the stuff off in a shower of chips.
The job went better when it was much colder as the pitch gets more brittle & shatters more easily.
Once the pitch was cleaned off i then had to punch the oval nails out of the tongues.
I reckon it took me three full weeks to clean the lot off. But running the stuff through the thicknesser afterwards & seeing the clean teak appear definately made it worthwhile!
Unfortunately the Bosch power scraper is now out of production but if you can find a secondhand one they are definately the tool for the job.
fred55
Established Member
I've got the same problem; tried hand plane but soon stopped and tar covered footplate, then electric planer much better but eats the wood ! - please post the most effective that you try. S I can copy.
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