House in Progress Diary

Have you considered using a blow dryer to soften the mastic? POPS"30:

HI there! Sometimes that old glue is water soluble. We discovered that wetting the floor (giving it a good soak), covering it up with paper towels or old newspaper to keep it moist and letting it soak for 24 hrs. loosened the glue. We were able to scrape up the mastic with paint scrapers. Much easier then the old chip and scrape route. It also scratches the floor less. Maybe you could try this in a small corner just to see it water has any effect. Best of luck! My back and shoulders hurt in sympathy...

I had this same experience in a house built in 1919. After scraping the entire floor I discovered by accident that Windex worked like a charm to take the glue off. The glue that I was dealing with was a tar like substance that was really difficult to remove. As I recall, I had to leave the Windex on the floor for a bit and then I used a scrubby sponge to remove it. It may work for your floor, I guess it depends on the type of glue your working with.

We used a big string mop like a janitor would use, with the squeeze type bucket. HOT water swished around on the glue disolves it into a stinky mud (give it about 5 minutes and do an area at a time) and then the mop rinsing and fresh water finishes it off. Much, much easier but very yucky. No doubt that glue was made from animal material based on the smell.

Guys,

The mastic is on top of the finish, i.e. shellac. If you soften and lift up the shellac, most of your mastic comes with it.

I've done this dozens of times. What softens or dissolves shellac?: Heat (hair dryer-heat gun), solvent, i.e. denatured alchohol (ethanol) or paint remover (open windows), ammonia (that's why windex works, to a point). Water would also work, but can also do some real damage to your floor.

Scraping can really hack up your floor if you're not careful, and it's hard to be careful after several hours of scraping and blisters. Solvent won't raise the grain of the wood and is really the best way to go.

If you do this right, and there is not a lot of damage to the floor, with a little more prep, you can go ahead and re-shellac the floor and never have to sand it (a no-no in restoration, if you can avoid it).

Marty

P.S. You site site is really kind of fun. I guess misery love company. By the way, by the time you get to your 4th or 5th house, everything will get a lot easier. (Just kidding - I know you'll never more because that's what we said in our first house.)

WOW! All of these ideas are so good!

We will definitely try some. We had tried a few things. Heat worked well in the hallway. This room had water damage underneath the tiles (as you can see by the "grid" pattern") and we tried a bit of Peel Away 7, which was just okay. We'll try some others.

Sadly, the floors have to be done because the surface of all of them is already in very bad shape. Nails stick up everywhere. Medimum scratches. Water damage. Rugs and furniture were left in place for 70 years creating a darker "ring" or "patches" around the rooms. Very sad. But something we knew going in. We had already done the "penny test" and knew that sanding the floor was at least possible.

But...we don't have to replace any wood! (Outside of the back of the kitchen.) Whoo hoo!

Hi there!

I wandered into your site as I was investigating the Silent Paint Remover. I was most impressed with your luck at removing the gunk under your old tile floor. Will it work on the mastic in the bedroom you're working on?

Lynne (in Seattle)