What are my options?

[Mpower5266]

I hate the floors in my basement and I badly want to paint/stain/epoxy them. The problem is that they are covered in mastic from old tile from when the basement was "finished." I doubt I will be in this house too much longer, maybe 3 or so years, but I will probably keep it as a rental. One option is to rent a grinder, move everything out, spend a few days grinding cleaning and prepping for epoxy. Its not a bad idea but Im worried about where I am going to put all my stuff during the work and the dust since its a basement. What are the chances that a good garage floor paint would stick to the mastic if I cleaned and prepped really well. How would it hold up to jackstands and floor jacks?

Pic of the floor for reference.

Untitled by mpower5266, on Flickr

Untitled by mpower5266, on Flickr

 

[Garage Flooring]

Whatever system you use, don't waste your time trying to circumvent the prep. Get rid of the mastic, then move forward

 

[Armorpoxy]

Agree, mastic must go if you want to coat it. We carry a mastic remover/dissolver that softens up the mastic so you can scrape it off. Works swell, a bit slow going and messy (use cat litter to encapsulate the goo), and then prime before epoxy coating with matching epoxy primer.

 

[Armorpoxy]

We have seen a lot of problems from mastic. It's not porous and can cause peeling, even with just foot traffic. We always recommend the prudent thing to do which is remove it. Thickness of a coating doesn't make it adhere better, just that it's thicker and more abrasion and impact resistant.

 

[jcupp]

I had a 1000 sqft storage room at my business wit the same issue. I tried a grinder but after about 6 hours it still had lots of mastic everywhere. Next I tried Bee-e-doo mastic remover.

It worked great. Poor it on, spread it around with a squeegee wait and it dissolved the mastic. Then it was jut a matter of mopping the stuff up. That was a nasty job. Once it was clean and dry I ran the grinder over it and then put down my epoxy.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Handy tip...when using Bean e Doo or other mastic dissolvers, use cat litter or oil absorbant to encapsulate it and then just shovel the goo up into garbage bags...

 

[Cairo94507]

Do it right or don't do it at all. Short cuts never work out.

 

[38 Dodge Coupe]

I removed 9 x 9 tiles from a basement floor. Once the tiles were up the best ( and somewhat messy) job of removing the mastic began. For 1,000 sq ft you would need 5 gals of remover in my opinion. I used BLUE BEAR 500MR Mastic Remover For Concrete 5 Gallonpail . I paid $171.00 for a pail + shipping as I recall. You pour it on the old mastic and let it set. It looks like dirty motor oil after it softens the mastic. I used a scrub brush toget it loose and then put cat litter to soak it up. You then remove it from the floor. It has an ok odor and is a soy based product. Once I was done I scrubbed the floor de-greaser and a buffer.

 

[75gmck25]

The last time I looked into mastic removal I was told to never use a petroleum based remover if you are going to put paint, stain or tile adhesive on the floor. The concrete absorbs the petroleum products and makes it difficult to get a good bond with any new surface coating. However, I think Bean-E-Doo is okay because its soy based.

Another suggestion was to pour near boiling water on the mastic and see if it softens up. If it becomes soft then it will scrape off relatively easy after being softened with several available products. If it remains hard when boiling water is applied, then its probably asbestos based and it will be much harder to remove.

Bruce

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

A 7" angle grinder, dust shroud and shop-vac with a Diamabrush head.
It will chew through the mastic pretty well and ask for more.

http://www.legacyindustrial.net/diamabrush-hand-tool-video.html

 

[climbernyc]

Be careful, that mastic may have asbestos in it, depending on how old it is. Don't grind it as the dust could be nasty

 

[James-W]

Be careful, that mastic may have asbestos in it, depending on how old it is. Don't grind it as the dust could be nasty

He could scrape a little off and have it tested. That way he would know for sure if it has asbestos in it or not.