New house, old tile garage floor. Help!

[Jtels85]

My wife and I recently purchased a home that was built in the 1950’s. The entire home has been remodeled, unfortunately the garage was not. At some point many years ago, someone put down this hideous tile on the concrete floor and previous water damage over the years has eroded some of it away. It needs to come up as I would like to coat the floor.

Would this come up with an industrial tile scraper (I have a long pole with a scraper blade attached to the end) or will I need to grind it down with a machine? I’m also concerned about asbestos. Sorry for the terrible pictures, they’re all I have at the moment. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Ricky Joe]

I chipped mine up with a spade. Slow work at times, but worth the effort, to me.

 

[luvtheheat]

Be advised it probably contains asbestos....

 

[Shiftless]

Be advised it probably contains asbestos....

I second that. My house was built in 1950 and the downstairs rumpus room had those same tiles. Asbestos.
I covered mine with wall to wall commercial carpeting.

For a garage I would consider Race Deck tiles or similar.

 

[Jtels85]

I was looking at Race Deck tiles and they appear to be a viable option, probably cheaper than coating the floor.

I am concerned about the asbestos. I’d likely have to get a giant fan and a full respirator.

 

[inphx]

How big is it ? Hardiboard layer and porcelain tile?

 

[driftpin]

Yes to a respirator. I would want the tile out of there, especially if you're going to sell sometime down the road. No to grinding, that will put it airborne, bigly. My opinion.

 

[lolaetype]

The company I worked for did some commercial renovations that involved asbestos removal. As I recall it, stabilized, encapsulated asbestos is not a problem. When it get's friable, starts to crumble, and creates dust you have a problem. If you remove it, wear breathing protection and mist a small area at a time and scrape off the tile with a sharp shooter. Double bag it and dispose of it legally. Usually a homeoner can take it to a landfill, check with your local waste disposal people. Be aware that once the tile is gone, some VAT adhesives, black mastic, also contained asbestos so don't grind or sand it. You might need to use solvents to assist you in getting it up.

 

[Ricky Joe]

.

 

[Jtels85]

The company I worked for did some commercial renovations that involved asbestos removal. As I recall it, stabilized, encapsulated asbestos is not a problem. When it get's friable, starts to crumble, and creates dust you have a problem. If you remove it, wear breathing protection and mist a small area at a time and scrape off the tile with a sharp shooter. Double bag it and dispose of it legally. Usually a homeoner can take it to a landfill, check with your local waste disposal people. Be aware that once the tile is gone, some VAT adhesives, black mastic, also contained asbestos so don't grind or sand it. You might need to use solvents to assist you in getting it up.

Would this be okay, or should I go buy a sharp shooter spade? Any excuse to go to Home Depot is fine by me.

 

[lolaetype]

Would this be okay, or should I go buy a sharp shooter spade? Any excuse to go to Home Depot is fine by me.

Try it. It will either work or it won't. I've seen tile that practically flies off the floor like the law of gravity was suspended and some that were really stubborn.

 

[Jtels85]

Try it. It will either work or it won't. I've seen tile that practically flies off the floor like the law of gravity was suspended and some that were really stubborn.

We get the keys in a couple of weeks at closing. In the meantime, all I can do is wonder. There is not a drain outside of the garage door and it appears water does leak into the garage, likely during a heavy rain or melting snow. That will be another issue to tackle before winter.

My first house was a 50’s build slab and we found the original tile underneath the carpet we tore out. My scraper chipped it away with such ease.

 

[rsanter]

I was looking at Race Deck tiles and they appear to be a viable option, probably cheaper than coating the floor.

I am concerned about the asbestos. I’d likely have to get a giant fan and a full respirator.

If it was me and I wanted to pull those up I would have one person spraying water while I was using a phnumatic scraper.
Those tiles are heavily compressed and the water will keep and material from getting airborne

 

[Jtels85]

If it was me and I wanted to pull those up I would have one person spraying water while I was using a phnumatic scraper.
Those tiles are heavily compressed and the water will keep and material from getting airborne

That’s a good idea

 

[Fav Onefour]

Send in samples for testing.
I'd honestly be a little surprised if the tile has asbestos. That would have been too fancy for a garage floor.

No need to even worry about the method until you know for sure.
Disposal can get tricky in some areas. Covering it with another material means more to dispose during the next round. I'd just get rid of the stuff now.

 

[O.C.]

Home Depot has a spade bit for a Sawzall thats like a scraper blade. I've used these to remove all kinds of flooring. Parquet, tile, Linoleum, adhesive, ect. Cheaper and faster than anything else I've found.

 

[Jayman17]

Getting the tiles up will be the easy part compared to getting up the mastic they used to install them. I had exact same tiles in my basement and had to use a product made from soybeans IIRC to remove the mastic. It was quite a mess but did remove it.
Good luck!

 

[duneslider]

Its is extremely likely that the tile and mastic has asbestos. If the glue is black I can almost guarantee is has asbestos. Every black vct adhesive I had tested has asbestos in it. The only way to remove the glue is to grind it.

The tile removal will be easy and probably after this much time they will pop up very easy and you can bag them up and dump them no problem.

What do you WANT to have the floor look like? If you are wanting and epoxy floor, let those guys grind it and deal with the adhesive removal. If you want to do race deck or something like that leave the glue alone and go over the top of it.

 

[Jtels85]

Its is extremely likely that the tile and mastic has asbestos. If the glue is black I can almost guarantee is has asbestos. Every black vct adhesive I had tested has asbestos in it. The only way to remove the glue is to grind it.

The tile removal will be easy and probably after this much time they will pop up very easy and you can bag them up and dump them no problem.

What do you WANT to have the floor look like? If you are wanting and epoxy floor, let those guys grind it and deal with the adhesive removal. If you want to do race deck or something like that leave the glue alone and go over the top of it.

I'm still open to what I want to do with the floor. I guess I'm waiting to see what it'll look like once I get the tiles up and I can go from there. Whatever I do, I need to be able to roll around a jack and use jack stands. I also want the floor to be a light color to brighten the garage. Would you have any suggestions?

 

[duneslider]

If you put something like racedeck down you wouldn't need to remove the adhesive. Racedeck does have light colored materials and you can use jacks and what not over it.

If you are going to go the route of epoxy or something like that it will need to be ground down first.

 

[rsanter]

That’s a good idea

And I say that as that’s how I have seen the pros do it

 

[Jtels85]

I appreciate everyone’s input. I wanted to share a few before and after pictures. We decided to fill in and cover up the old asbestos tile with Husky PVC interlocking garage tile from Home Depot. I finished it off with brand new cove base last night. Installation was easy and I’m very happy with the results!

 

[Skybolt31]

I appreciate everyone’s input. I wanted to share a few before and after pictures. We decided to fill in and cover up the old asbestos tile with Husky PVC interlocking garage tile from Home Depot. I finished it off with brand new cove base last night. Installation was easy and I’m very happy with the results!

I see you have jackstands in the picture, how well does the floor do with them?

 

[Ricky Vargas]

I appreciate everyone’s input. I wanted to share a few before and after pictures. We decided to fill in and cover up the old asbestos tile with Husky PVC interlocking garage tile from Home Depot. I finished it off with brand new cove base last night. Installation was easy and I’m very happy with the results!

thank you for posting! I am in the same spot, and after seeing your results will do the exact same.

 

[Jtels85]

I see you have jackstands in the picture, how well does the floor do with them?

Surprisingly, very well. The feet will leave little indentations and after 24 hours they disappear. Haven’t had any issues at all.

We had a channel drain installed in front of the garage door which has helped, but discovered that the downspout on the front of the house was allowing water to seep along the foundation. We have rerouted the water above ground for the moment using corrugated pipe, and we’re testing to see if the problem goes away.

 

[toolmiser]

You might find asbestos.