"Lets Play Two" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks:
I've never laid down vinyl tile but my lady friend has asked me to do this
for her kitchen sometime in Jan/Feb.
She has old vinyl tile in her kitchen. Probobly will just lay down new
vinyl tile rather than ceramic. Is there a decent web-site that shows
how
to do this?
Now for some questions after visiting home depot yesterday:
1. They have the self-sticking vinyl tile as well as the non-sticking
vinyl
which requires the tile paste. Which is the best tile to get? The
self-sticking tile seems easier/cheaper to install but I have to wonder if
using the paste along with the non-sticking tile will produce better
results?
2. If going with the non-sticking tile, what is the best glue/adhesive to
use?
3. Home depot rents out an electric tile remover for $48 per day. Does
anyone have experience with these that can tell me if this is worth
getting
rather than using a hand-scraper to remove the tile?
thanks for any advice!!!
There are several possibilities here. First off you might have no wax vinyl
These have no asbestos , are flexible and if they have been on the floor for
20-30 years they probably have gaps around each square where the tiles have
shrunk.
You also might have vinyl composition tiles. These are hard but have no
asbestos. These are the ones you can buy today.
You night also have vinyl asbestos tiles. They also are hard and brittle
and are a health risk if you grind or sand them. If you remove them by
scraping, there is no problem. (Except disposal. If you show up at the dump
with a pickup full of these they will probably charge you a haz-mat fee) I
had these in my shop and when the shopping center was sold the new owners
abated all the asbestos. The crew had a little air sampling machine that
ran for 24 hours during and after the chip up of the tiles. None of the
crew wore any kind of special gear and since I watched the whole process I
asked them why no suits or masks. They said that all the asbestos is stuck
in the plastic matrix of the tile. The little air sampler was required by
the safety nazis but that unless there is grinding of the tiles, (never done
in practice) none of the fibers become airborne.
On the other hand, They had the movie theater closed down for about a month,
the whole place was draped in plastic and the folks working there were
dressed like Star Wars storm troopers to remove the fluffy sprayed on
asbestos from the duct work.
As far as the electric scrapers go, unless you are going to chip up a whole
lot of tiles, a hand scraper works very well and even if it a big kitchen
you will probably have the tiles popped in about an hour or so.
The biggest problem is dealing with the stickum left after the tiles are
gone. The floor guys use a wide razor on a handle and scrape as much as
they can off, then they float a plaster stuff over what's left to give a
smooth surface to lay the new tile.
If you put down the composition tile, that stuff wears forever (think about
the grocery store) the problem is you need to wax and buff the stuff or it
looks dull and dreary. Also periodically you need to strip off the old wax
and reapply and buff.
The other option is to use sheet goods. Unless you require no seams and
have very little prep work to do, it might be worth looking into having the
floor guy do the job. I am a big into the DYI thing but the floor guys are
in and out and usually only bill you $50 an hour or so.
--
Roger Shoaf
About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.
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