At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael

On 12/11/2011 10:21, Michael Kilpatrick wrote:
At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about
it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael


Car valeters use a specific Tar & Glue Remover for this & its very
effective, especially the 'orange' based ones;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-limonene

http://www.valeterspride.co.uk/tar--...duct-113-p.asp

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/engine.../prod_586.html

http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/carpro...53780mljrn0bm3



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 12/11/2011 11:08, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 12/11/2011 10:21, Michael Kilpatrick wrote:
I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface

[snip]


Car valeters use a specific Tar & Glue Remover for this & its very
effective, especially the 'orange' based ones;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-limonene

http://www.valeterspride.co.uk/tar--...duct-113-p.asp

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/engine.../prod_586.html


http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/carpro...53780mljrn0bm3

Thank you very much for that. I'm assuming, since you mention car
valeting, that the products in question leave the wood/etc in very good
condition for a quick sanding and finishing afterwards. I'll look into
that. Obviously the requirements for removing tar from the top surface
of the parquet is more detailed than that for the underside, where it
doesn't matter if the wood is stained and blotched.

Michael

"Michael Kilpatrick" wrote in message
o.uk...
At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug up
so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being thrown
together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the question
is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the offending
bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about it?

I found white spirit is just as good as anything..

Jim G

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we get
to lay it!

Michael

On 12/11/2011 10:21, Michael Kilpatrick wrote:
At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about
it?

I think if you took any great globs of it off prior to sanding, that
would be adequate rather than "as much of the offending bitumen as
humanly possible". White spirit will wipe off most of it, although it
niffs, and would be more of a fire risk than the citrus based tar removers.

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Depends on what you are sticking them down with I suppose!


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Nov 12, 10:21*am, Michael Kilpatrick
wrote:
At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael

Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long
as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern
adhesive, it all has to come off.


NT

"NT" wrote in message
...

On Nov 12, 10:21 am, Michael Kilpatrick
wrote:
At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about
it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael

Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long
as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern
adhesive, it all has to come off.


NT



surely, solvents may cause it to be absorbed into the wood. I would go for
mechanical / manual removal.

On Nov 12, 9:53*pm, "DerbyBoy" No-one wrote:
"NT" *wrote in message

...

On Nov 12, 10:21 am, Michael Kilpatrick
wrote:



At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about
it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael

Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long
as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern
adhesive, it all has to come off.

NT

surely, solvents may cause it to be absorbed into the wood. I would go for
mechanical / manual removal.

Not to any great extent, but thats already done, when it was frist
applied.


NT

On 13/11/2011 08:54, NT wrote:
On Nov 12, 9:53 pm, "DerbyBoy"No-one wrote:
"NT" wrote in message

...

On Nov 12, 10:21 am, Michael
wrote:



At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about
it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael

Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long
as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern
adhesive, it all has to come off.

NT

surely, solvents may cause it to be absorbed into the wood. I would go for
mechanical / manual removal.

Not to any great extent, but thats already done, when it was frist
applied.


NT
I had the same problem. I simply warmed mine up with a blow lamp in
paint stripping mode, then when the bitumen had soften scraped it off.
There was little remaining which I hand sanded. Worked for me.

--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

On Nov 12, 9:45*pm, NT wrote:
On Nov 12, 10:21*am, Michael Kilpatrick

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long
as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern
adhesive, it all has to come off.

There are plenty of modern adhesives which are bitumen compatible
(like lecol 5500, etc).

Whether you have to remove any depends on the state of the underside.
The reclaimed parquet I've used came with a very smooth even layer, so
it was left on, but I've seen some with really crusty thick stuff
which looked impossible to work with (with any adhesive).

In message
Michael Kilpatrick wrote:

At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael

After quite a lot of experimenting I found a rotary wire brush the
easiest and quickest way remove the bitumen. Place blocks side by side
on a workmate top, gripped by two bits of wood and clean away. I
managed to about 350 before the wire brush fell apart but a new rotary
brush is only a few quid. Throw away the clothing unless you like the
smell of bitumen! Hope this helps.


--
John Bryan

In article ,
John Rumm writes:

I think if you took any great globs of it off prior to sanding, that
would be adequate rather than "as much of the offending bitumen as
humanly possible". White spirit will wipe off most of it, although it
niffs, and would be more of a fire risk than the citrus based tar removers.

Citrus based product may raise the grain, as it contains water,
and you want to avoid that before sanding.
White spirit shouldn't do that, and once it's evaporated, there
will be no residue and no smell. I would only be worried in case
it managed to wash any tar deeper into the surface, but I suspect
it won't go deep enough that it won't be pretty instantly sanded
off, but I would test a bit first.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Nov 16, 1:00*pm, NT wrote:
On Nov 13, 11:13*am, Bolted wrote:





On Nov 12, 9:45*pm, NT wrote:

On Nov 12, 10:21*am, Michael Kilpatrick
I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!
Paraffin removes it. No need to remove it from the underside, as long
as you use bitumen to stick the blocks down. If you use a more modern
adhesive, it all has to come off.

There are plenty of modern adhesives which are bitumen compatible
(like lecol 5500, etc).

Whether you have to remove any depends on the state of the underside.
The reclaimed parquet I've used came with a very smooth even layer, so
it was left on, but I've seen some with really crusty thick stuff
which looked impossible to work with (with any adhesive).

The usual way to lay blocks with bitumen is to heat and melt the
bitumen. If there's a thick crust of it on there, why wuold one add an
adhesive.

I don't know - I would just buy some other tidier blocks and use a
safer, easier, quicker and more pleasant to use adhesive.

replying to Michael Kilpatrick, Janes wrote:
We used a company in Bradford, now in Manchester, to do ours. They collected
the parquet (all we needed to do was bag it up) once cleaned they delivered it
back to us. We had the bitumen removed and the tongue taken off as cleaning
the tongue and groove was costly and after a long chat it made more sense to
remove the tongue as it's not needed with the strength of today's adhesives.
After spending hours and hours trying to clean them myself I gave it up as a
bad job. Not the cheapest way of cleaning them, but by far the easiest and
most professional way. I was delighted with the result. You can choose 3
bitumen removal services, plus various other services. These are the only
company that will touch parquet with sticky bitumen on - ours even had
concrete stuck to them.
Cost us about £20 per square metre but saved us A fortune in fitting cost as
the fitter wanted a daily rate to remove and some wouldt touch the job.
You'll find that the modern adhesives that state you can use with bitumen
backed blocks are not all they're made out to be. You can use this adhesive
with reminants of bitumen, not a full block full of bitumen, otherwise they
may loft (just like some Of our first floor did!!!
Anyhow, sorry for ranting on, the company is Parquet Bitumen Removal
www.parquetbitumenremoval.co.uk
And it's a lady who does this work. Amazing if you ask me.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy...et-766832-.htm

On Sunday, 1 January 2017 03:13:56 UTC, Janes wrote:
replying to Michael Kilpatrick, Janes wrote:

We used a company in Bradford, now in Manchester, to do ours. They collected
the parquet (all we needed to do was bag it up) once cleaned they delivered it
back to us. We had the bitumen removed and the tongue taken off as cleaning
the tongue and groove was costly and after a long chat it made more sense to
remove the tongue as it's not needed with the strength of today's adhesives.
After spending hours and hours trying to clean them myself I gave it up as a
bad job. Not the cheapest way of cleaning them, but by far the easiest and
most professional way. I was delighted with the result. You can choose 3
bitumen removal services, plus various other services. These are the only
company that will touch parquet with sticky bitumen on - ours even had
concrete stuck to them.
Cost us about £20 per square metre but saved us A fortune in fitting cost as
the fitter wanted a daily rate to remove and some wouldt touch the job.
You'll find that the modern adhesives that state you can use with bitumen
backed blocks are not all they're made out to be. You can use this adhesive
with reminants of bitumen, not a full block full of bitumen, otherwise they
may loft (just like some Of our first floor did!!!
Anyhow, sorry for ranting on, the company is

And it's a lady who does this work. Amazing if you ask me.

Spam for a product no-one needs to pay for. Just apply more bitumen.


NT

On 01/01/2017 12:17, Huge wrote:
On 2017-01-01, Janes m wrote:
replying to Michael Kilpatrick, Janes wrote:
We used a company in Bradford, now in Manchester, to do ours.

We used the parquet as kindling and put down carpet instead.


Friends of ours spent a year renovating the very nice Parquet floor in
their house, then decided to sell. First thing the new owners did was
lay carpet

On 01/01/17 16:41, Lee wrote:
On 01/01/2017 12:17, Huge wrote:
On 2017-01-01, Janes
m wrote:
replying to Michael Kilpatrick, Janes wrote:
We used a company in Bradford, now in Manchester, to do ours.

We used the parquet as kindling and put down carpet instead.


Friends of ours spent a year renovating the very nice Parquet floor in
their house, then decided to sell. First thing the new owners did was
lay carpet

When we sold late mums house, went back there - next door had also been
sold and new owners had pulled up carpet. 'Golly, That's the oak parquet
that was there when that house was built' I said.

They were thrilled to discover it.

On Saturday, 12 November 2011 12:17:49 UTC, the_constructor wrote:
"Michael Kilpatrick" wrote in message
o.uk...
At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug up
so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being thrown
together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the question
is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the offending
bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about it?

I found white spirit is just as good as anything..

Jim G

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we get
to lay it!

Michael

Yes. +1

On Saturday, 12 November 2011 10:21:00 UTC, Michael Kilpatrick wrote:
At last, after two years, I've got round to sorting out some parquet for
our hallway after it was extended.

I got some parquet - more than enough - for a song, off ebay, but
unfortunately it wasn't packed (back-to-back) properly when it was dug
up so many of the blocks have bitumen on the top surface after being
thrown together in large bags, all sticking together.

Clearly the parquet will be sanded down after it is laid, but the
question is, should I do something beforehand to remove as much of the
offending bitumen as humanly possible? And if so, how do I best go about it?

I imagine I'll also need to get as much of the bitumen off the underside
of the blocks, so there'll be a lot of manual labour for me before we
get to lay it!

Michael

Get the bulk/thick bits off with a blowlamp and shavehook.
That's usually all that is needed.

Shavehook:-
http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/vi...Bi8aAlyX8P8HAQ

surely, solvents may cause it to be absorbed into the wood. I would go for
mechanical / manual removal.

Yes, that is what DOES happen, as the guys working on a job I was on discovered. Although, they also discovered that bitumen-covered parquet can be reliably laid using a tile adhesive which is suitable for use on bitumen bases (effectvely you will be turning upside-down the normal procedure where the tile is applied to the bitumen floor, by applying the bitumen to the tile, "tile" and "concrete" being considered identical). The parquet was laid in this way in 2005, and is still fine.