How do you get Tar Adhesive off Hardwood Floors?

[Vraille Darkfang]

Ok.

We just moved into our new home about 6 months ago. A 1930's Craftsman Home.

We are now doing our first major remodel, the kitchen, as it really needs it.

Part of our re-model was to lift off the crappy, cheap linoleum, as we were pretty sure we had Solid Oak Tongue & Grove Hardwood beneath it. Why someone would put cheap linoleum over gorgeous hardwood is beyond me. But the previous owners, did, indeed feel the need to cover a floor worth $5000 dollars with 200 bucks of plastic. Go Figure.

The good news:

We do, indeed have the orginal Hardwwod beneath the crappy plastic.

The bad news:

We have Linoleum (which ripped right off). We then had quater inch Plywood with zillions of screws & nails covering the hardwood. Beneath that, all the hardwood was covered with a cheap Tar adhesive (why you'd want to cover your KITCHEN floor in a Flammable substance is beyond me.

But now we have to try to scrape tar off our floorboards so we can Sand them, Fill all those Nail/Screw Holes, then stain the floor.

Oh, yeah, the cabinent guy is going to start putting in our new cabinents Next Monday.

So we have to have the tar scraped up (though the Sanding/Staining we can do later) in a week.

Do any home improvement gurus know how to mop/scrape up tar?

I'm still amazed that someone would cover up beautiful Hardwood Floors with cheap linoleum, white linoleum.

Of course they also painted over all of our orginal, cherry hardwood trim with White Paint. And the Orginal Maple Cabinents with White Paint. And the Brick Fireplace with White Paint. Actually, the painted about everything they could a drab white/cream color.

Still, help me!

I'm sure that all the answers to all the questions in the universe can answered by someone at ENWorld.

Now, the veracity of those answers....

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Hmm. I'm not positive, but my best guess would be some sort of turpentine or pertolium based solvant. I know that when I used to help do some roofing we always got the tar off our hands with either kerosene or gasoline (which, I suppose, could explain some of my fuzzy memory issues...). I doubt you'd want to use either of those in the house, though. I'd check with a your local lumberyard, floor refinisher, or a cabinetry shop and see what they might suggest. And if all else fails, test in a corner with some gas or kero on a rag and see what happens. But man, using that on the whole floor would stink up the house something fierce...

 

[adwyn]

There are several different products available in the paint aisle at the hardware store, most are basically mineral spirits so go with what's cheap. Be forewarned that any attempt to remove the old adhesive will probably stain your floors even more than they are now.

First, make sure your floors are hardwood. Many people are fooled. Next make sure that they are tongue and groove. There is a very good chance that the floors, even if hardwood, were never meant to be bared so they may not be of the best materials, instead being second rate. Of course that may still leave them better than what you can buy now days. When your house was built linoleum products, sheet or tile, were considered major advancements over hardwood.

The tar will have stained your floors as well. Depending on humidity and care this stain is likely to be more than superficial, but likely adds character to your floor. A quality job on your floor is likely to take more than a week, so you must decide which is more important, quality or timing. Get some bids by professionals. Even if you are planning on doing it yourself it will help you guage how much of a chore you have in front of you.

And offer xp to players who chip in with elbow grease, it's amazing what suckers they can be.

 

[Mark CMG]

http://doityourself.com/woodfloors/woodfloorstainremove.htm

Tar: To remove tar, freeze it to brittleness with ice cubes and then scrape it off with a plastic spatula. To remove the tar stain, wipe with a cloth dampened with either a dry cleaning solvent or a formulated safety solvent. or Scrape up excess tar with the side of a dull knife. Rub again with your fingernail, a ice cream pop stick, or anything that won't scratch the floor. Finally, wipe up the tar with a dry cloth.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

There are several different products available in the paint aisle at the hardware store, most are basically mineral spirits so go with what's cheap. Be forewarned that any attempt to remove the old adhesive will probably stain your floors even more than they are now.

They are already stained. We'll have to snad them & re-stain them. We are aware of that.

First, make sure your floors are hardwood. they are tongue and groove. There is a very good chance that the floors, even if hardwood, were never meant to be bared so they may not be of the best materials, instead being second rate. When your house was built linoleum products, sheet or tile, were considered major advancements over hardwood.

They are the same Hardwood as what is in the Hallway (Good Hardwood was really cheap in this part of Missouri in the 1930's). They were the orginal floor (we have the 'real' base boards beneath it. They are Tongue & Groove (we can see a cut away where they stop to go into the basement. That's why we ripped the floor up, we new nice hardwood was beneath it. No, it's not Pine. The Linoleum was layed down in 1993 (2 owners ago, he left dated pictures of what the house was like when he bought it). That's another reason we ripped it up. Really old Linoleum would have had Asbestos in it.

A quality job on your floor is likely to take more than a week, so you must decide which is more important, quality or timing. Get some bids by professionals.

As I said, where getting a complete Kitchen overhaul in a week. We are not going to even try to restore our floor until the Cabinents are in & the Workers are out. For now, all we need to do is get all teh Tar up. We'll restore it later (hopefully to compliment our new Kitchen Cabinents.

And offer xp to players who chip in with elbow grease, it's amazing what suckers they can be.

We used a ham dinner. My players respond even better to food than XP.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

http://doityourself.com/woodfloors/woodfloorstainremove.htm

We are talkin about 100 square feet here.

That's a lot of ice.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

I feel your pain, Vraille. We pulled up some fairly ruined carpet and found gorgeous hardwoods. We're trying to figure out how to get the pet-soaked ammonia-saturated rotten padding from underneath off the blasted wood. Not to mention the glue. I'm running out of hope that we can avoid sanding. LOTS of electronics and computers to foul.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Another alternative to ice, if you can get it, is dry ice. Dry ice will freeze the adhesive very quickly, and you should be able to get a bunch of it off with one block. Additionally, you won't have to deal with water melting onto your floor. It wouldn't be easy or cheap, but dry ice will work much better than water ice.

 

[Umbran]

Dry ice is probably a reasonable alternative, and it isn't particularly expensive - the stuff is used in shipping foods all the time.

If you do use dry ice, please make sure the area is well-ventilated, as the CO2 content of your air will rise.

As for covering everythign with White Paint - back in the day of crappy, cheap, asbestos-laden linoleum, they didn't have the plethora of inesxpensive cleaning chemicals available that we have today. The place may have become dingy in a way that could not be fixed in any affordable way at the time.

 

[Mark CMG]

We are talkin about 100 square feet here.

That's a lot of ice.

Wear a coat and gloves, and chill the room (window air conditioner?) to keep the ice from melting too fast while you work. As suggested, dry ice might be the way to go. Get a small piece and try it out. Or, get a bunch of those blue ice inserts for food coolers and rotate them in and out of your freezer as they "lose their cool." This would avoid the inevitible moisture problem you'd have with any kind of ice. You might get additional use from them down the road or could donate them some local youth organization that goes camping or any large group that has picnics and whatnot.

Don't forget to use only PLASTIC scrapers to avoid scarring the floor.