I recently removed the 60 year old 9X9 tiles from my 250 sq/ft basement utility room. I'm assuming these were VAT and took many safety precautions and think I did it all safely. And please no bombarding with warning/information about VAT. I've already read several encyclopedias worth of articles on the topic and that is not why I'm posting (thanks).
The tiles were in pretty bad shape. Some were no longer attached to the floor. Others popped off easily by just sliding a putty knife underneath. And the rest took varying degrees of effort to get off.
I ended up using BEAN-e-doo to remove mastic from about 1/3 of the floor last week. This stuff does a pretty good job as you can see on left side of the photo.
I'm trying to figure out what flooring options makes the most sense. I'm going in all sorts of different directions. I've been thinking about ceramic tiles, Home Depot 'Allure' , which is supposed to be a water proof laminate, and 'Nature Stone', which is a pricy epoxy-stone mixture. Or maybe I should just give up and not even redo the floor and instead just get one of those those interlocking foam/rubber floor mat systems and just lay it down directly over the concrete.
Some of the issues/complications:
I wish there was a way to use self leveling concrete (SLC) to craft the entire floor to have a slope towards the drain. That way any standing water, from a sink overflow, hot water heater leaking, or washing machine problem, could always end up going to the drain. Without a slope any water could flow towards other areas of the basement outside of the utility room. I think having a slope would open up options for other types of flooring but everything I'm reading about SLC says you can't do something like this.
Any input is appreciated.
Thank you.
The tiles were in pretty bad shape. Some were no longer attached to the floor. Others popped off easily by just sliding a putty knife underneath. And the rest took varying degrees of effort to get off.
I ended up using BEAN-e-doo to remove mastic from about 1/3 of the floor last week. This stuff does a pretty good job as you can see on left side of the photo.
I'm trying to figure out what flooring options makes the most sense. I'm going in all sorts of different directions. I've been thinking about ceramic tiles, Home Depot 'Allure' , which is supposed to be a water proof laminate, and 'Nature Stone', which is a pricy epoxy-stone mixture. Or maybe I should just give up and not even redo the floor and instead just get one of those those interlocking foam/rubber floor mat systems and just lay it down directly over the concrete.
Some of the issues/complications:
- May have messed up the ability of an adhesive or self leveling cement from being able to stick to the floor where I did use the BEAN-e-doo. I'm hearing that I may need to do some grinding of the surface if I want a SLC to adhere to the area where I applied this stuff.
- Floor does not really slope toward drain. Have several low spots (or several high spots).
- Many tiles came off over time so I'm thinking there is a minor moisture problem such as water vapor coming through the concrete slab over the years and eventually unglueing the tile. As far as know basement has never flooded but that doesn't mean it won't some day. I've never seen standing water but the concrete block foundation does get some efflorescence on the lower few feet.
- Removal of the remaining mastic.
I wish there was a way to use self leveling concrete (SLC) to craft the entire floor to have a slope towards the drain. That way any standing water, from a sink overflow, hot water heater leaking, or washing machine problem, could always end up going to the drain. Without a slope any water could flow towards other areas of the basement outside of the utility room. I think having a slope would open up options for other types of flooring but everything I'm reading about SLC says you can't do something like this.
Any input is appreciated.
Thank you.