Stripping Adhesive From Geometric Tile

[dctrud]

Hi... wondering if anyone has any tips for stripping adhesive/mastic from geometric tile?

We have a long hallway, with some nice geometric tile that was covered up by a previous owner, except in the porch. It's covered with absurdly thin wood / wood effect tiles held down with a black adhesive/mastic. Luckily these tested negative for asbestos, but are extremely difficult to remove. The tile splinters readily, leaving large patches of the black adhesive.

Have had a few quotes for deep cleaning and re-sealing the tile once it is stripped... but nobody seems very willing to do that bit for us. Wondering if there a product that will help, or is it going to be a case of lots of evenings of careful but quite forceful scraping... trying not to scratch?

Fingers crossed it should look nice in the end. The geometric tile seems to be in really good shape.

Thanks!

 

[Cubist]

If you have a hot air hair-dryer or better still a hot air paint stripping gun you can play the heat a few inches ahead of a scraper to loosen the remaining wooden tile and the thicker parts of the adhesive. This should allow you to peal the adhesive away from the tiles beneath but some residue may be left behind. Be careful not to play the heat over a small area for too long you just want to melt the adhesives bond to the pottery tiles.

Use a solvent such as petrol or acetone - nail polish remover - to agitate and wipe off the residual adhesive - but not while using the heat gun/hair dryer.