"I am taking up the carpet in my house and going back to
the original hardwood. The original hardwood is in
pretty good shape. But! When I took the carpet out of
the coat closet I found that at one time or another
somebody put down some ugly green asphalt tile in it. I
tried lifting a piece and it looks like I can get the
tile up fairly easy. But then there will be that black
mastic left on the floor. Is there any good way to get
that stuff up so I can do something with the floor?
Thanks for any help. "


Before you do anything, consider the possibility that if it's old floor
tile, there is
a good chance it contains asbestos. You can do a web search and find
info
on proper ways of dealing with it. Left alone, it's not a problem, but
if you want
to remove it, you need to follow some basic safety procedures. If you
can simply
go over it with new flooring, that IMO, is the simplest and best
solution.