Removing old floor tiles (Festool 300 LS scraper comes to the rescue)

[Frank Pellow]

On Sunday, I started to renovate the bathroom that is attached to the master bedroom in our house.  The first task was to remove the old floor.  That sounds easy enough, doesn’t it.  Well, let me tell you –it was not easy.  There was one layer of vinyl tile over a layer of linoleum tile that had been partly removed.  The bottom half layer, in particular, was both stuck hard and sticky.  After about 45 minutes of scraping with various tools, trying out a hair drier, even trying some chemicals, I only had about one tile removed.

Then, I remembered a gizmo that might do the job.  My Festool 300 Linear sander (567 777) came with a scraper attachment (491 199).  I was very happily surprised at what a great job it did!    Below is a picture of the attachment in action:

It took only about an hour and a half to strip the rest of the old tiles (and this includes the time that it took to remove baseboards and the toilet). 
There was still some glue residue on parts of the floor.  I cleaned this up quickly (about 10 minutes for the whole floor) with my Rotex 150 sander (571 494) in aggressive mode using both 36 and 50 grit Saphir disks.  Of course this operation was dust free. 

That’s the good news; the bad news is that I clogged up 6 sandpaper sheets (at just under $1 US each) doing the job.  The underlying sandpaper is still very sound, so I tried cleaning off the gunk with a wire brush but was not successful.  I can sort of pry it off but it took me about 15 minutes to clean up one sheet that way and I am not prepared to spend that much time at the task.  If anyone has another suggestion for how to restore the sandpaper, please let me know.

One other Festool sander also came in handy.  That is the Deltex 93 (567 738) which was really good at getting into corners and cleaning up edges.
I can’t figure out how to include more than one picture in a post with this forum software, so one picture is all you get. 

I started a similar thread with 6 additional pictures on Canadian Woodworking (which has vBulletin software and can support up to 10 embedded pictures per post).  Here is a link to that thread: http://www.canadianwoodworking.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15708

 

[mysterium]

Frank,

Thanks for the feedback on the LS 130 scraper.  I have one but haven't found the "right" project, or more likely I didn't think about it in the "heat of battle".    Hopefully because of your post, I'll remember it & save myself some grief.

On cleaning the paper, I've used old chisels to knock the gummies off.  On my stationary sanding station's 6" x 48" belt or 12" disk I have found the big rubber erasers work well.

As for your bath, and for that matter your other project posts it's away great to see what your working on...

jim

 

[Loren Hedahl]

That’s the good news; the bad news is that I clogged up 6 sandpaper sheets (at just under $1 US each) doing the job.  The underlying sandpaper is still very sound, so I tried cleaning off the gunk with a wire brush but was not successful.  I can sort of pry it off but it took me about 15 minutes to clean up one sheet that way and I am not prepared to spend that much time at the task.  If anyone has another suggestion for how to restore the sandpaper, please let me know.

You might find a solvent that would dissolve the floor adhesive, but not attack the sandpaper binder.

For a lousy six bucks, I would restore at my friendly Festool restore site.

Thanks for the feedback on the linear sander.  I don't have one yet and wondered if the scraper was of any value, or just a useless accessory. 

Actually I just finished tiling a couple of bedrooms.  The original carpet was glued down to the concrete slab, and used as a pad for successive recarpeting.  I scraped the old glue off the hard way with a carbide bladed hand scraper.  At the time I was thinking about the catalog picture of the Festool scraper attachment.

Loren

Loren

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks for the feedback on using the scraper.  I have the sander and several accessory pads for it, but not the scraper.  Before reading your account, I was skeptical about the value of the scraper.  Do you think it would be of any help in removing old wooden parquet tiles made by Bruce flooring - 9" X 9" X 1/2" thick and bonded with a bitumenous adhesive?  I have struggled trying to pry up a few of these after a water leak caused some of them to be damaged.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Dave, yes I do think the scrapper would work for that job.

As to cleaning up the sandpaper, I tried a couple of additional ways to clean the it, then gave up. Getting this job done with only 6 cloged discs was certainly money well spent, but I hate to waste anything.

 

[Loren Hedahl]

Another question came to mind:

How much wear-and-tear are you getting on the scraper blade?

I ask this as it doesn't look like the blades are replaceable from the catalog description (unless I missed something).

Loren

 

[mysterium]

Loren,

The scaper should be easily sharpened.

Besides.... what else is that old belt sander good for once you have a Rotex?  ;D

jim 

 

[Frank Pellow]

Another question came to mind:

How much wear-and-tear are you getting on the scraper blade?

I ask this as it doesn't look like the blades are replaceable from the catalog description (unless I missed something).

Loren

There was little or no wear on this job.

No the blade cannot be replaced -but the good news is that the blade is very easy to sharpen.

 

[Dan Clark]

...
Besides.... what else is that old belt sander good for once you have a Rotex?   ;D
... 

Jim,

Actually a belt sander is still the better tool under certain circumstances.   For example, as part of my bathroom remodel, I had to sand down the joists to get them flat.  I tried my RO150 FEQ, all that did was to mess up the pad.   

I went out and bought a Makita 3X21 belt sander.  It worked very well for that purpose.  (And, its dust extraction port worked very well when hooked to my CT22.) 

In general, I think a belt sander is better for removing material from a narrow surface. 

That said, if the surface is wide enough, the RO150 is my tool of choice for removing material.

Dan.