....to put down tile?

reason I ask this question is I spent last weekend finishing scraping
up the old tiles in my laundry room (I'd done the other half months
ago; then finally I got sick of looking at the job half done and
shoved everything to the other side of the room and finished it.)
They were the semi-flexible kind, like you'd see in, say, an old
basement, or a warehouse or something. I used floor stripper and a
paint scraper and stiff scrub brush to get up "most" of the old
adhesive, and it worked pretty well. Unfortunately I find that there
was no edge to the tile where it enters the big room down there, it
just continued on right underneath the threshold, so I can only assume
that the whole basement was originally tiled, and then in the other
room this nasty Berber carpet was laid over top of it.

The whole reason for this exercise is that the tiles in the laundry
room were already starting to come up by themselves, so I assume that
the ones in the main room are in similar condition, so it would
probably not be a good idea to lay anything over top of them; they'd
need to be removed. I think that long term we would like to pull up
the carpet and then lay down new tile and use an area rug over top of
it. Question is, if the concrete floor "looks" clean, but might have
a few spots of glue here and there, is that clean enough to
successfully lay down new tile, or does it really need to be eat-off-
it spotless? If the latter, how does one accomplish that?

thanks,

Nate

On Oct 13, 2:36*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
N8N wrote:
...to put down tile?

reason I ask this question is I spent last weekend finishing scraping
up the old tiles in my laundry room (I'd done the other half months
ago; then finally I got sick of looking at the job half done and
shoved everything to the other side of the room and finished it.)
They were the semi-flexible kind, like you'd see in, say, an old
basement, or a warehouse or something. *I used floor stripper and a
paint scraper and stiff scrub brush to get up "most" of the old
adhesive, and it worked pretty well. *Unfortunately I find that there
was no edge to the tile where it enters the big room down there, it
just continued on right underneath the threshold, so I can only assume
that the whole basement was originally tiled, and then in the other
room this nasty Berber carpet was laid over top of it.

The whole reason for this exercise is that the tiles in the laundry
room were already starting to come up by themselves, so I assume that
the ones in the main room are in similar condition, so it would
probably not be a good idea to lay anything over top of them; they'd
need to be removed. *I think that long term we would like to pull up
the carpet and then lay down new tile and use an area rug over top of
it. *Question is, if the concrete floor "looks" clean, but might have
a few spots of glue here and there, is that clean enough to
successfully lay down new tile, or does it really need to be eat-off-
it spotless? *If the latter, how does one accomplish that?

The new tile needs to stick to something, else it will come up. Whether that
"something" is bare concrete or dried glue that is virtually one with the
underlying concrete is immaterial.

Assuming there are no "bumps" from the residual dried glue, your biggest
enemy is dirt and dust. Glue won't stick to dirt worth beans.

So, if the former glue is really, really bonded to the floor, you can put
tile on top.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Glue won't stick to dirt worth beans

Actually, glue sticks to dirt very, very well. That's why it doesn't
stick to whatever it is you want it to stick too.

On Oct 13, 10:25*am, N8N wrote:
...to put down tile?

reason I ask this question is I spent last weekend finishing scraping
up the old tiles in my laundry room (I'd done the other half months
ago; then finally I got sick of looking at the job half done and
shoved everything to the other side of the room and finished it.)
They were the semi-flexible kind, like you'd see in, say, an old
basement, or a warehouse or something. *I used floor stripper and a
paint scraper and stiff scrub brush to get up "most" of the old
adhesive, and it worked pretty well. *Unfortunately I find that there
was no edge to the tile where it enters the big room down there, it
just continued on right underneath the threshold, so I can only assume
that the whole basement was originally tiled, and then in the other
room this nasty Berber carpet was laid over top of it.

The whole reason for this exercise is that the tiles in the laundry
room were already starting to come up by themselves, so I assume that
the ones in the main room are in similar condition, so it would
probably not be a good idea to lay anything over top of them; they'd
need to be removed. *I think that long term we would like to pull up
the carpet and then lay down new tile and use an area rug over top of
it. *Question is, if the concrete floor "looks" clean, but might have
a few spots of glue here and there, is that clean enough to
successfully lay down new tile, or does it really need to be eat-off-
it spotless? *If the latter, how does one accomplish that?

thanks,

Nate

I assume that the ones in the main room are in similar condition

That may not be the case. If the laundry floor got wet more than a few
times over the years, that might explain why the tiles are coming up.

You might not have that problem in the main room.

On Oct 13, 3:48*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Oct 13, 10:25*am, N8N wrote:





...to put down tile?

reason I ask this question is I spent last weekend finishing scraping
up the old tiles in my laundry room (I'd done the other half months
ago; then finally I got sick of looking at the job half done and
shoved everything to the other side of the room and finished it.)
They were the semi-flexible kind, like you'd see in, say, an old
basement, or a warehouse or something. *I used floor stripper and a
paint scraper and stiff scrub brush to get up "most" of the old
adhesive, and it worked pretty well. *Unfortunately I find that there
was no edge to the tile where it enters the big room down there, it
just continued on right underneath the threshold, so I can only assume
that the whole basement was originally tiled, and then in the other
room this nasty Berber carpet was laid over top of it.

The whole reason for this exercise is that the tiles in the laundry
room were already starting to come up by themselves, so I assume that
the ones in the main room are in similar condition, so it would
probably not be a good idea to lay anything over top of them; they'd
need to be removed. *I think that long term we would like to pull up
the carpet and then lay down new tile and use an area rug over top of
it. *Question is, if the concrete floor "looks" clean, but might have
a few spots of glue here and there, is that clean enough to
successfully lay down new tile, or does it really need to be eat-off-
it spotless? *If the latter, how does one accomplish that?

thanks,

Nate

I assume that the ones in the main room are in similar condition

That may not be the case. If the laundry floor got wet more than a few
times over the years, that might explain why the tiles are coming up.

You might not have that problem in the main room.

You're right, of course, but I can't count on that. also the tile was
painted over (!?!?!?!) seriously, it was this old school white stuff
with gold flecks and someone painted right over top of it with blue-
grey paint. Looked really awful. So I can't make any assumptions
about the main room one way or another unless/until the carpet comes
up, and I have to assume worst case, that I'll have to scrape and
scrub there as well - because I'm sure that if tiling over old tile is
half assed, then tiling over old tile that's been painted is quarter
assed at best. I do have *some* standards

nate

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:25:03 -0700 (PDT), N8N
wrote:

...to put down tile?

This doesn't apply to you as you've gone past the point of no return:
I just wanted to post my wonderful, albeit ugly, experience with those
great big 24x24 soft foam interlocking pieces that are supposed to be
used for kids. A neighbor was throwing out a set, and I rescued them
and put them on my laundry room floor. Joy! A soft comfortable floor
surface to stand on that's not slippery and doesn't care about water!

On Oct 13, 6:17*pm, KLS wrote:
On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:25:03 -0700 (PDT), N8N
wrote:

...to put down tile?

This doesn't apply to you as you've gone past the point of no return:
I just wanted to post my wonderful, albeit ugly, experience with those
great big 24x24 soft foam interlocking pieces that are supposed to be
used for kids. *A neighbor was throwing out a set, and I rescued them
and put them on my laundry room floor. *Joy! *A soft comfortable floor
surface to stand on that's not slippery and doesn't care about water!

Actually i've seen those at Harbor Freight and thought about picking
some up. I wouldn't say "point of no return" - the nasty old tile
needed to go anyway. I now have a nice-ish bare concrete floor, which
is way better than what I started with, or I can go all out and cover
it with something if I choose to make more work for myself.

At least I can *clean* the floor now, as opposed to before, where
you'd just push the dirt around into the spaces between the tiles.
And you could never tell if you had a water leak until it was serious,
and if you saw water, you could never tell where it was coming from
because it'd run underneath the tiles to the low spot and bubble up
there. (that was really the main impetus behind this... the previous
owners "never had any water in the basement" but I seem to have found
tons of little drippy things to fix.)

nate

On Oct 14, 8:16*am, KLS wrote:
On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:53:12 -0700 (PDT), N8N
wrote:





On Oct 13, 6:17*pm, KLS wrote:
On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:25:03 -0700 (PDT), N8N
wrote:

...to put down tile?

This doesn't apply to you as you've gone past the point of no return:
I just wanted to post my wonderful, albeit ugly, experience with those
great big 24x24 soft foam interlocking pieces that are supposed to be
used for kids. *A neighbor was throwing out a set, and I rescued them
and put them on my laundry room floor. *Joy! *A soft comfortable floor
surface to stand on that's not slippery and doesn't care about water!

Actually i've seen those at Harbor Freight and thought about picking
some up. *I wouldn't say "point of no return" - the nasty old tile
needed to go anyway. *I now have a nice-ish bare concrete floor, which
is way better than what I started with, or I can go all out and cover
it with something if I choose to make more work for myself.

Then you should get a set. *It's easy to sweep up stuff off of these
things. *I haven't tried wet mopping yet as I haven't had any wet
messes to clean up, but I'm pleased with how much better these things
make life down in the basement laundry room. *Amazing what a
difference standing on these is from standing on concrete (mine are on
a somewhat uneven concrete floor, too, and they're very forgiving of
the less-than-perfect surface). *Wonder what color the HF ones are.
Ours are the primary colors: *red, yellow, blue, plus green. *Pretty!

HF's were dark grey, and they were sold as work mats for standing in
front of a workbench/machine tool/ whatever. Only thing I wonder
about those is the suitability of using them close to gas fired
appliances. They were also fairly thick IIRC, so I guess I would
probably just lay them down in the middle of the room almost like a
rug, and not try to go under the sink, washer, dryer, etc.

nate

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:10:34 -0700 (PDT), N8N
wrote:

HF's were dark grey, and they were sold as work mats for standing in
front of a workbench/machine tool/ whatever. Only thing I wonder
about those is the suitability of using them close to gas fired
appliances. They were also fairly thick IIRC, so I guess I would
probably just lay them down in the middle of the room almost like a
rug, and not try to go under the sink, washer, dryer, etc.

Our dryer is gas, no problems whatsoever. I've laid these mats in the
center of the room as there's really no point in going underneath the
washer, dryer, or sink. I'm sure HF's are cheap, but I bet you can
get the bright colored ones at Big Lots or BJ's, that kind of place.
Those might be thinner than the HF ones and perfectly fine.