questions on self stick tiles

NoExperience

Thank you for helping.

With self stick tiles is it recommended to use floor primer over wood.
The reason I ask is will the paint become a hassle if a tile comes loose and needs to be replaced ?
I assume that I will need to lift the old glue to put a new tile down .
Probably with a heat gun ?
So what will that do to the floor paint ?

Another reservation I have with self stick tiles is when or if you need to replace a tile and you start removing glue , if you use a heat gun how do you prevent loosening glue from an adjacent tile ?

If floor paint is recommended does the paint go down before floor filler/leveler ?


Can these tiles take the cold after cured.
It's summer here now but if I put these self stick tiles in a garage will they survive?

Nestor_Kelebay

I'm much more familiar with vinyl composition tiles, but I think I can answer some of your questions.

If you paint your wood floor with a latex primer before installing your tiles, I expect some of the primer will come up with the floor tiles if you just straight pull them off. I think less of the primer would come off if you use an interior alkyd primer.

When I replace vinyl composition tiles, I simply put 1/8 inch thick pieces of 2 inch wide steel strapping around the perimeter o the tile I want to remove. That steel absorbs heat well, and keeps the tile below cool. I warm up the tile I want to remove and slowly slide a narrow pry bar under it. Doing it that way, you don't pull up any of the floor leveler, so you end up with a smooth surface to put the new tile down onto.

You can do the same with your Peel & Stick. If any primer comes up, simply clean the old glue off the primer with paint thinner, allow to dry completely, mask off the adjacent tiles, paint the square area with oil based primer, allow to dry, and stick down another tile.

I don't think freezing temperatures would do any harm to your Peel & Stick tiles if they're still in the box.

floorgal

i'm unclear. is your floor currently painted and you want to put p&s tiles over it? if so, first you need to make sure that paint is secure and not peeling. if it is not, then yes, a flooring primer adhesive is suggested. not just a regular floor primer. but, and this is a big but, if the paint is glossy it needs to be sanded down. if the floor is not painted, then what kind of sub floor is it? plywood? particle board? wood planks? this indeed makes a difference. p&s tiles should be placed over an ultra smoth surface such as luan. then primed with a flooring primer adhesive. then after placing the tiles, you need to roll the floor with a 100 lb roller. the glue they use is a contact-cement. so the more pressure applied the better the hold. the floor primer adhesive acts as an 'extra' bond strength. when needing to replace a damaged tile, yes, using heat to remove it may cause the adjacent tiles to lift. place books or something on them immediately afterwards to help hold them down as they cool back down. but, leaving tiles in the garage may be a bad idea. the glue is not intended to go through extreme temp changes and may cause the glue to fail. better luck put it in the back of a closet somewhere.

Nestor_Kelebay

Floorgal:

Short pieces of 2 or 3 inch steel strapping can be obtained free at any steel fabricator that uses steel strapping. Placing the steel immediately around the tile to be removed protects the adjacent tiles from heat so that the adhesive holding them down doesn't even soften.

I find that when I remove a vinyl composition tile, the steel strapping around the tile I'm removing will barely even be warm despite the hot air blown on the steel in removing the tile. I expect that's because steel is dense, and it takes a lot of heat to warm it up.

Also, if you use a pry bar like this one:

http://www.arichard.com/en/PRODUITS_DESC.asp?ID=357564

It's sharp and flat enough that you can simply heat the tile from above and slide the sharp end through the glue layer to lift the tile off the floor without pulling up any floor leveler (or in the case of P&S tiles, primer adhesive).

And, the tool above is actually used by bee keeper's for scraping the honey off hives. If you go to any apiary supply store (beekeeper's supply), you can find these tools in different sizes and shapes:

http://www.beemaidbeestore.com/browse.php?txtCatID=39

The larger 10 inch tools are commonly available in hardware stores, but the other sizes and styles seem to only be available in bee keeper's supply stores. Beekeeper's supply stores will often stock these same tools in stainless steel as well as spring steel.

floorgal

that's some helpful information. thanks! you seem to have been doing some homework. good luck!

NoExperience

No I guess you misunderstoof flor gal.
I am installing the tiles in a garage not storing them there .
So I had concerns about the temperature.
I also had a home depot employee tell me to always add regular floor adhesive to self stick tiles.
But I dont know if I trust that advice .

Nestor_Kelebay

No Experience:

Do you park your car in that garage? If so, it's a lousy idea to install P&S tiles. The car tires will grind road grit into the tile faces, and they will start looking dirty and worn in no time. Also, a wet vinyl P&S tile floor will be very slippery when wet. You'd be much better off even putting old scrap carpet in your garage to park on. At least then you could replace the flooring quickly and easily by just spreading out new old scrap carpet.