If you do a search on floor tile mastic remover you will find several options. I am in the process of removing the mastic from the concrete basement floor at my daughters house. The floor tiles came up easily and mostly intact, but the black mastic really is attached. I settled on a soy based remover from Fran Mar Chemical. It is environmentally acceptable, has no hash odor and actually given enough time actually works. It turns the hard glue into an oil like substance that you then soak up with kitty litter and then dispose. Please note, this is not a wipe on, wipe off proposition, it takes anywhere from 1/2 hour to 3 hours to dissolve the mastic. In one case I actually let it soak over night. Also it makes a mess of anything it gets on. Other than that, I tried scraping, and wire brush in a very small area and it did not even make a dent in it. Also given the age of the material 50+ years, it is not a good idea to be making any airborne particles. Hope this helps. They make a remover for both the black mastic and the beige mastic. The stuff is not cheap and runs anywhere from $30- $50 a gallon. However it is probably one of the better options out there.
