I just removed some old sheet linoleum from our hallway and what’s left ,and almost impossible to remove is a black glue type stuff which is pretty solidly stuck down. We would like to salvage the wide pine underneath the mess, but aren’t sure how to get this stuff up. It’s got to be about 40-50 years old. Any advice out there??
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I just removed some old sheet linoleum from our hallway and what’s left ,and almost impossible to remove is a black glue type stuff which is pretty solidly stuck down. We would like to salvage the wide pine underneath the mess, but aren’t sure how to get this stuff up. It’s got to be about 40-50 years old. Any advice out there??
You should shoot Allan W a message here on IDO. He just went through this same chore earlier in the year.
Here’s the link to his user account >>> http://www.idofishing.com/forum/showprofile.php/User/16549
It could contain Asbestos so be careful! 
did this about 10yrs ago in our kitchen. Beutifull oak floor covered with old time linoleum. Called the guy that was going to finish my floor and he told me to just use Dawn dish soap and warm water. Let it sit a little then scrape . Easy as that, honestly. Went really well.
Sent ya a pm, but heat gun and big scraper are what finally did it.
Two person job.
Al…who thinks his root canal was more fun….
If you want to get it really clean after most of the old backing has come up, use laquere thinner. Its very smelly and will make alot of people dizzy but it removes the thin coat of adhesive thats left stuck to the wood. Buy alot of paper towels and rub whats left off. If theres alot to do you might want to get a charcoal facemask to hold the vapors so you don’t breath it in. Doing it this way involves some labor but it takes everything off right down to the wood.
Its important to get as much of the adhesive off as possible, within reason, because whats left on the wood will clog the sanding discs and most of them are a few bucks apiece. Laquere thinner makes almost everybody dizzy if exposed to it for very long so do it with someone close by and definately use even a cheap charcoal face mask. The backing on that old linoleum tile is an asphalt base and If you want to get the wood very clean befor sanding or maybe not haveing to sand at all use laquere thinner, its about $10 to $12 a gallon. The vapors will put you on cloud 9 so be careful and take a break if needed. This is a way to get the wood really clean but do it only if you need to.
DON’T SET ANYTHING ON FIRE WITH THE HEAT GUN….
Good advice above! It takes elbow grease, and there is no sugar coating that. Reward is a beautiful wood floor if the effort is invested.
FYI on the thinners. Great idea and works well. They vapors can be harmful and very flammable, so ventilation in VERY important. The most common ingredients to lacquer thinner are: Toluene, Methanol, Light Aliphatic Solvent, Naphtha,& Acetone. Very irritating to eyes, nasal, throat, lungs… A very good respiratory type mask is recommended!
Toluene & Acetone. These can dissolve your innards. In a lab only used in a hood.
Cutback adhesive is what it was called.
If it was applied directly to the pine floor that you are trying to save, IMHO forget it.
Cutback will penetrate as much or more than 1/2 inch into the substrate. The remaining gasses in the substrate will keep you from over laying any type of finish for the long term.
I had one hard learned project with this scenario. It involved Portland cements levelers for a pie shaped sunken floor and floor covering on concrete. 3 times we tried, last one held for 3 or so years. But upon a later inspection (3 plus years out) it was having problems.
Come to think of it, all of my cutback issues were on concrete sub surfaces.
The old asbestos adhesive is a “sitch” to deal with. By design, it comes up and grabs the tile and returns to the substrate till it cannot go any deeper then returns up and it’s sucking process starts all over again.
On the flip side of the coin, the same thing is happening that works against you in the reverse once the tile is removed. It will push off what you are trying to over lay.
I hope products have changed in the last 15 years as I had many high end suppliers on this case to solve the problem. (The cost was very high to say the least) Do not ask.
Franmar’s beanee-do works great and it’s not going to blow your house up 
After stripping off all of the black mastic as you can, you must go back and scrub/rinse thoroughly with a degreasing cleaner like simple green
Some mind expanding thoughts here. Maybe work with what you have by stripping the surface with Laquere thinner and beings the black glue has soaked into the boards, thus staining them, maybe rub it with Laquere thinner to get the shades you want.
Maybe you’ll get the varigation you want between the darker colors and the shades of lighter colors, that you could just clear coat, with a couple or a few coats of water based clear coat. Maybe add some toner to the clear coat, might be pretty cool and end up with a floor that looks 500 years old. Dark shades of black stains of varied densities, then add maybe a little red or gold to the clear coat, maybe both. Maybe take a few diffrent colored stains and rub them into the black background, then clear coat it with toner added to the clear. Take what you have and make it look good instead or trying to hide anything, make it work for you…
I know in staining and some types of painting you have to create an illusion to make things look good and to be able to take your eye away from what looks maybe inferior to what you want.
Theres a process called back staining that pulls your eye away from a spot or color. Say you have a piece of plywood thats been stained and now has a few light blemishes on it, say from sanding the blemishes out. Restaining the whole board just darkens the surface, the repaired and non repaired surfaces. If you get those spots to match closely but they don’t then by backstaing the whole piece of plywood a close shade to that color, that in itself pulls the eye away from those repaired spots because your eye sees the whole board and that shade.
By changing colors and not too much you can then restain the whole surface and get a sufficient finish color, and the repairs then blend and disappear.
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