Cleaning bitumen off oak parquet

[masochists-r-us]

We have recently bought a large quantity of 70's oak parquet which we plan to clean up,lay and re-finish, but there is a tacky layer of bitumen on the back of each one. We have looked into various methods to clean them up and have narrowed our choices down to either putting them through a thicknesser planer which will take a few millimetres off the bottom of each one,acid bathing and then leaving them to dry or laying them with the bitumen intact, using a specialist adhesive and hoping they stay stuck down. We need to clean up around 1000 of these things,but we also do have a life to live, so please can I ask for your views on the best way forward.

 

[Craig89]

I am in a simular situation as yourself. I have about 50m2 worth to do. Although I havent researched it extensively yet, my plan was to lay them with the bitumen intact as I do believe there are adhesives made for this application

 

[Flyfisher]

To clean them up, I would investigate ‘tar removal’ products for cars. Petrol will also act as a solvent for bitumen but obviously needs great care in use.

But with 1000 blocks to clean it will probably be quicker and easier to lay them bitumen-down with an appropriate adhesive.

 

[Easrow]

We recently did this for a room in our house. Horrible job. We found the best way to do it ourselves was make up a little jig to hold the block still and run over it with a wire wheel on a grinder. It makes a mess so probably best outside. Use a full face mask too as the bits coming off hurt she they hit. You don't need to remove it all as some adhesive is tar tolerant. It takes ages. About an hour a meter squared. We tried scraping and found that too tedious. We tried an electric plane but it just blocked it up. We also found its easier when they are cold. A thicknesser is probably going to be your best bet and it will take out any difference in level where some may be worn down. You will also need to scrape off the edges...a tungsten carbide scraper is best for this. I won't be using reclaimed parquet again any time soon. Good luck.

 

[88v8]

Years ago, many years ago, when the Lloyds 1921 building was demolished, I bought about 20yds of the oak woodblock flooring.
As was customary, It had been laid in bitumen. Which I wasn't expecting.

We moved house before I got round to doing anything with it, but our neighbour showed me how he had dealt with the same problem when he laid woodblock in his bungalow in the 50s; he bought a small stove, put a few blocks in there and warmed them until the bitumen was soft, then scraped it off with a paint scraper (and a stove mitt). Not every scintilla, but enough that it was flat.
He said it was quite quick, once one got going.

That would just leave the need for a suitable glue.
I recall now we went into this before, hmmm, I'll have a search.

Can't find it. But I found this
https://woodfloor-renovations.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-flooring-adhesive-to-use-for-my.html
where it says there is no glue, but links to this
http://www.woodfloor-renovations.co.uk/parquetblockrepair.htm
An alternative to my (late) neighbour's stove.

Ivor

 

[Feltwell]

I don't think a thicknesser is a good idea, for two reasons:-

- I think the bitumen would clog it quickly
- If it's like mine, then you get a difference in thickness when the last part of the wood being passed through leaves the feed roller - mine always takes a little bit more off the final couple of inches. OK when doing long lengths to trim down but no good for old parquet blocks!

 

[masochists-r-us]

Hmm. Note to self. Do some research before you buy next time
Other half has decided that he is going for the planer / thicknesser idea because all other options sound horrible so I hope you're wrong Feltwell. We have spoken to someone who used one of these and they said it was very dirty and very noisy, but we are concerned about the machine clogging up. Suspect we'll probably end up having to replace the blades at the end of the process too.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Please keep 'em coming.

 

[Feltwell]

You'll need a chip extractor on a planer/thicknesser, or a vacuum cleaner and be prepared to empty it a lot.

If I run mine without a chip extractor, it clogs up with sawdust pretty much instantly.

Personally, I'd try to stick the back down again with something that can tolerate bitumen - but - your plan may work, so Good luck!

 

[masochists-r-us]

Having researched the 'use adhesive compatible with bitumen' approach, we have done an about turn and we're going to try using Lecol 5500 adhesive. Spoke to their UK rep. yesterday and although they won't guarantee success, apparently many have used this approach successfully, before us. Will update the forum when we've completed the job. Fingers crossed !

 

[Craig89]

I wish you the best of luck as that is the method I hope to use!

 

[masochists-r-us]

Having bought the adhesive and stuck a test block to the USB board that we're using as a subfloor, I'm happy to report that the Lecol 5500 does the job brilliantly. Quite expensive at circa £100 for a very large can, but worth every penny on the basis that we won't have to scrape bitumen off around 700 blocks of wood ! However, I should probably add that our blocks have a fairly modest layer of bitumen, they're not caked in the stuff.

 

[Craig89]

Thats great news. Good luck with your install. Out of interest roughly whats the thickness of the adhesive under the blocks?

 

[masochists-r-us]

2-3mm of adhesive approx. Good luck with yours too !