Cleaning bitumen-covered flagstone floor

[Jonathan Parry]

I have a large flagstone covered hall in a Grade 2 listed Georgian farmhouse. It has been covered in carpet for many years, but I now would like to expose and return them to their former glory. Unfortunately, underneath the carpet they are covered in some sort of bitumen, which is quite thin and which resulted in a black sticky mess when I tried to clean then with a stone cleaning solution.
I hope someone out there has some advice for me!!

[NT]

Trying to clean off bitumen is a real bitumen. Lets hope its not that. It dissolves in paraffin, so theres something to try.

NT

[Sue Wilkinson]

I've cleaned it off the back of wood blocks with a sharp chisel. Running the chisel along at an angle shatters the bitumen off. If its not too thick on the floor try something like that. I even bought a power scraper, which does the job easier than the chisel, but gave me problems with the vibration on my arms. It might work for you.

Sue

[Samantha Graham]

Did you resolve your problem, if so how, as I am having just the same issue. If you could let me know

[lee w]

SANDBLASTING
spent weeks and weeks and weeks scraping and chipping asphelt and bitumen and red paint off the flags . £350.00 done in one day looks like new .
but filled the house with sand dust

[Old Thatch]

Contact Strippers Paint removers for advice



www.stripperspaintremovers.com

[stuart andrews]

Sand blasting sounds great. Can you tell me who did the sand-blasting? I have the same problem.

[Moo]

Contact Strippers first. May well be cheaper, and you don't get the dust.
(By the way, have you tried Nitromors? I don't know how it is with bitumen and the like, but it made short shrift of the nasty paint on our flagstones. Try it out on a test patch - you might have a pleasant surprise.)

[MDE]

Don't use Nitromors! It just makes the bitumen soak into the stone, then you'll never get it off. Try one of the Strippers products (see their web site for advice).

[Moo]

I take it all back.

Listen to MDE and go straight to Strippers.

[R King]

I managed to remove bitumen of stone with an Ecover product. It was a degreaser based on orange and worked miracles on my stone work. This was the last product I tried after trying other harsh chemicals which did not work nearly as well.

The product smells nice, is environmentally friendly and is safe to use too.

[peter]

I used a Strippers product on black bitumen stains in my kitchen quarry tiled floor, it was fantastic but expensive and very very strong (be careful not to inhale or splash it on your skin!!!).

Peter