VCT Tile repair question

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I have an engine assembly room at work that we have damaged some VCT tiles in by dropping heavy metal objects (engine parts) which has chipped the tiles. I realistically do not have the time to remove tiles and start over, but we are removing most of the cabinets and benches where we can strip the wax and reapply the floor wax as routine maintenance. What I am wanting to do as a 'bandaid' is to fill the chip damage with some type of epoxy that will level the floor somewhat so that dirt won't hide in the crevices and mopping the floor during clean-up will be easier. . I also need to use something that the floor wax will adhere to Is there some type of 2-part epoxy that I can use just to semi-level the surface until I remove the flooring and start over?? Maybe a clear JB Weld epoxy? Something else??

Below are some pix that shows the damage. Yes I realize this is severe, but it is a work area that has employees using it everyday, and I just need to fill the "holes" so dirt & grime does not collect there.

 

[mike93lx]

You are going to need to clean the heck out of those spots to get anything to stick.

I bet if you talked to a local flooring installer, you could get the offending tiles replaced with a decently close match pretty easily.

Otherwise, maybe something like Sika flowable filter would work. It's used to fill control joints and can be trimmed flush after applying

 

[duneslider]

I think you will spend more time trying to do a crappy patch on them then it would take to just replace them. A heat gun and a putty knife and those will come out in a few minutes, then just pop in the new ones and seal the floor. If you aren't gonna replace them then just strip the floor and seal it and keep filling the holes up with sealer. Epoxy would maybe work okay but anything more flexible will just cause issues.

Its not super kosher but in some rush situations I have stuck vct repairs down with contact cement. Its NOT the right way to do it but it is a little faster than using the vct glue, lets you seal it right away. It is a huge nightmare next time around though, way harder to get up.

 

[The Cobbler]

presumably the damage is in the area where nothing sits
anything you do will look like a patch, even if you have the same lot of tile in storage, they won't look the same when laid .
the broken areas will need to be degreased, it looks dirty so to get anything to stick may be tough.
for a repair without using tile, I would fill the holes with bondo and sand it smooth . might even try to mix some gray pigment into it to colour it .

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Thanks guys. What you are seeing that looks dirty is the black adhesive showing in which they used to stick these things down to the concrete. We replaced a couple in a different room and had nearly ½ a day by the time we chiseled-up the damaged ones ...and then scraped the black glue with chisels from the concrete so we would have a smooth surface to glue the new tile pieces down. We even had to use concrete patching compound to fill the areas where the concrete was damaged during the removal process. All in all, it is just not worth the trouble to 'do it right' at the present. When the time comes to do a complete revamp of the floor, I will rent a tile scraping machine and then grind the concrete to remove all of the glue doing it correctly.

Again, what I am looking for at the moment is a suggestion for something to fill the voids to get us by. Thanks again!!

 

[mike93lx]

You already got a couple suggestions. Are neither acceptable?

A heat gun didn't help with removal? Between that and a SDS chisel, removal of a few tiles can't take long at all

 

[duneslider]

I have literally replaced hundreds and hundreds of tiles with just a heat gun and sharp putty knife, a 4" razor scraper makes fast work of the glue. Heat them up and they come right up. Black glue hasn't been used in a long time though, any time I ran into black glue I had to have it tested for asbestos but that tile doesn't look old enough to be asbestos either. Sort of surprised there is black glue associated with that tile?

If you don't want to replace them then I would do like suggested above and strip it and clean it and then bondo the holes before resealing.

 

[The Cobbler]

black glue is very common here, sans asbestos now

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I have literally replaced hundreds and hundreds of tiles with just a heat gun and sharp putty knife, a 4" razor scraper makes fast work of the glue. Heat them up and they come right up. Black glue hasn't been used in a long time though, any time I ran into black glue I had to have it tested for asbestos but that tile doesn't look old enough to be asbestos either. Sort of surprised there is black glue associated with that tile?

If you don't want to replace them then I would do like suggested above and strip it and clean it and then bondo the holes before resealing.

Thank you. This tile was installed around 1994-95.
We have a body shop in-house with several types of body fillers including some Kevlar fillers, so that is what I will use. Thanks again!!

 

[duneslider]

@The Cobbler That's interesting, I did a little looking and it looks like asphalt emulsion adhesive is still fairly common in Canada. I suspect California caused it to disappear from the USA a long time ago. I have never personally used it, or seen it for sale. It does work better than other glues as it is less affected by water than all the new glues.

Anything installed in the 90's would be asbestos free. Asbestos was banned some place in the early 80's (in the USA anyway, not sure about other location). Either way, anytime I discovered black adhesive we had to have it tested before doing any work. There was a period of time where the black adhesive was used before it disappeared. This work was all in schools of varying ages.

 

[The Cobbler]

When I was doing contract work replacing VCT there was a small percentage of asbestos in the original glue and tile . as long as we didn't use a machine to lift the tile we were OK with removing it without a lot of hassles. we did have to dump at an approved site at about 4times the cost of regular construction waste, even tho it was at the same dumpsite & same hole . we always used black glue, it was so much easier to work with .
we had trace amounts asbestos in VCT tiles into the late 90's , something like .5% the glue, I can't remember .
I did have to train for class 1 asbestos removal, and there had to be at least 1 trained person on the jobsite.basically some one to **** on if they wanted to

 

[duneslider]

When I was doing contract work replacing VCT there was a small percentage of asbestos in the original glue and tile . as long as we didn't use a machine to lift the tile we were OK with removing it without a lot of hassles. we did have to dump at an approved site at about 4times the cost of regular construction waste, even tho it was at the same dumpsite & same hole . we always used black glue, it was so much easier to work with .
we had trace amounts asbestos in VCT tiles into the late 90's , something like .5% the glue, I can't remember .
I did have to train for class 1 asbestos removal, and there had to be at least 1 trained person on the jobsite.basically some one to **** on if they wanted to

Our rules were silly. It had to be tested. If it was positive in the glue they said it didn't matter because it was non-friable, so I could proceed. All the tile was supposedly removed before I started with them but occasionally we pulled up carpet and found some, in those cases due to liability, the remediation was hired out.

I didn't do too much of that work outside of the school district but when I saw a little there tended to be a "don't ask, don't tell". I was never involved in the demo though, just showed up for installs which meant someone had hired cheap labor to do the dirty work. The "good ol'days" of construction work. I hear safety is bit bigger deal. People always looked at me funny for wearing masks when grinding, or mixing thinset.

 

[The Cobbler]

asbestos is a great product for many things, it's not great for humans. it either kills you or it doesn't do anything , there's no in between

 

[Firebrick43]

Thanks guys. What you are seeing that looks dirty is the black adhesive showing in which they used to stick these things down to the concrete. We replaced a couple in a different room and had nearly ½ a day by the time we chiseled-up the damaged ones ...and then scraped the black glue with chisels from the concrete so we would have a smooth surface to glue the new tile pieces down. We even had to use concrete patching compound to fill the areas where the concrete was damaged during the removal process. All in all, it is just not worth the trouble to 'do it right' at the present. When the time comes to do a complete revamp of the floor, I will rent a tile scraping machine and then grind the concrete to remove all of the glue doing it correctly.

Again, what I am looking for at the moment is a suggestion for something to fill the voids to get us by. Thanks again!!

Get a scraping blade for a sds rotary hammer. It will have the tile up, and floor scraped in 5 min, not half a day.