Pulling up peel and stick tiles

ponch37300 · Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:12 pm

Hoping somebody may have some suggestions here. A neighbor/friend of mine bought another trailer in the park for cheap. It was pretty much abandoned and we are fixing it up to sell it. It's a nice trailer about 20 years old with new roof, siding, windows, kitchen cabinets. We primed and spray textured and painted all the walls, they were pink, blue, yellow! But the previous owner had some water damage and the floor is in rough shape. They have patched some spots, did a 1/4" ply overlay in some spots. I can fix the wood issues no problem but the biggest issue is they used those peel and stick tiles throughout the ENTIRE house! They are crooked and some are damaged and cracked and they need to come out. Also there is a small smell of cat or dog pee when it's hot out. So I would like to get bare wood to be able to neutralize that odor and then put a coat of kilz down to seal any odor up. Then planning on fixing the bad spots in the subfloor.

We used a heat gun and scrapper to get the tiles up and that wasn't too bad. But the issue is the glue is left on the floor and I'm not sure how to get the glue up? I'm thinking of just overlaying 1/2" plywood over the whole floor to cover up the glue and give a fresh new surface to install flooring on. Not sure if laying new ply and then a coat of kilz will seal in any smells that might come through?

Any thoughts on how to go about this? I have a new found HATE towards peel and stick tiles now! Please think twice(maybe three times) before using them for anything!

Greg · Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:13 pm

Floor sander? I think that's what I would try first. Since it's wood you can't go with a scraper or grinder. I have all kinds of machines at the shop that would take the glue, but I think you would be looking at the ground when you were done.

Greg

HouseMedic · Sun Aug 03, 2014 9:26 am

If you are going to just put down some other type of flooring that needs to be glued down I would put down a layer of Luan plywood. It is only 5/32 thick then you could put down anything you want. If you are covering it with something that just lays over it I have found putting some type of ash or powder over the old glue residue and it will get rid of most of the sticky stuff.

Ron

ponch37300 · Sun Aug 03, 2014 10:56 am

Thanks guys. I ended up pulling up all the tiles and then used a scrapper to get any bigger chunks off the glue. Then I used kilzs primer over the whole thing. I did a little test section and it worked pretty good so did the whole thing. Then we could walk on it without sticking to the floor! Cut out any bad spots and replaced. Then we put down a layer of new sheathing across the whole trailer. Finishing that up right now. This week we will finish up the sheathing and start with the flooring. Putting laminate in the living room/hallway, carpet in the bedrooms, and sheet vinyl in the bathrooms. It's coming together nicely. Should be done in 2-3 more weeks of working 2-3 hours each night and taking the weekends off. Got to have some relaxing time. Took the girls to the Green Bay Packer's family night last night, brother's band was playing there and their lead singer did the national anthem in front of 70,000 people and live TV. Getting ready to head out to a minor league baseball game today for "Strike out cancer" benefit.

Barb P · Sun Aug 03, 2014 8:13 pm

Hi Ponch. I was wondering what you are using for sheathing.
Thanks

ponch37300 · Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:12 pm

For the damaged areas we cut out we used 3/4" plywood. Then we used 7/16" OSB to overlay everything. The main reason for this was it was almost free. I know a guy that owns a roofing company and he has a bunch left over from jobs and sold it to me for very little. This will add a little strength and also provide a flat surface for the flooring. Depending on different things I will use different types of sheathing. Luan is also a good sheathing for floors to get a really smooth surface. Just depends on why you are replacing the floors and what type of flooring is going on top as to what type of sheathing to use.

UmpJJ · Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:56 am

Photos, Ponch?

UmpJJ

ponch37300 · Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:07 pm

Here's some progress pics. Should have most of the sheathing down tonight. Still have to fix some plumbing in one of the bathrooms before we can totally finish the sheathing. The previous owner used the shower without the drain hooked up! The pipe was under it but the part that screws into the drain from the top to seal the shower to the drain was missing so the drain pipe just floated under the shower with no seal.

Norm Frechette · Tue Aug 05, 2014 5:36 pm

WOW! Those tiles were REALLY stuck down!

kinyocase · Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:48 pm

Hope you don't mind me asking in this thread, but is that circular saw what you used to cut so close to the wall? If not what did you use to get such a good close cut?

ponch37300 · Thu Aug 07, 2014 8:17 pm

kinyocase wrote:Hope you don't mind me asking in this thread, but is that circular saw what you used to cut so close to the wall? If not what did you use to get such a good close cut?

No the circular saw was just used for the straight cuts. For the cuts by the wall I just used my sawzall. It works pretty good but takes a little practice. I believe it was JD that says he uses this ridgid saw and really likes it, http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-THRU- ... /100646504. I've been meaning to pick one up for a while now.

All the overlay is down and the floor is really solid now. Picked up a new water heater and will put that in next week sometime. Took 1200 pounds of garbage to the dump yesterday and cleaned everything up. I still have to find a drain for the master shower. They were using the shower and the drain wasn't even screwed to it, the top part of the drain is missing. So the drain just floated under the shower and let water go all over. This shower has the smaller diameter drain hole and all I can find locally is the larger shower drains. So think I'm going to have to order a drain from the parts store.

Going to start changing all the outlets and switches. The previous owners had painted everything in crazy colors and they painted the outlets and switches also. So we got all new and should be my fun for the next few days! There's also some outlets and other stuff that isn't working so will have to figure that out also. Pretty soon it will just need the new flooring, carpet in the bedrooms, laminate in the living room/hallway/kitchen, and sheet vinyl in the bathrooms. All the neighbors stop by each day to see the progress. They are really impressed with the progress and can't believe it's the same trailer.