Hi guys,
just wanted to share my experience with 300 sq.ft. family room sitting on a concrete slab on the ground and having the ubiquitous 9x9 asbestos tiles together with the much dreaded mastic aka cutback.
I wet them up put on a pink 3M mask and ripped them all up with a long handle ice scraper for sidewalks I got from HD.
Easy peasy.
Underneath it all was the cutback and in a 1955 house, I can tell you it smelled horrible. I cleaned much of it with paint thinner. Tried mineral spirits but it leaves some kind of oily residue that has a tendency to seep in the concrete.
I tried adhesive remover but it just makes the dried out gunk into a paste type gunk which you can spread over a large area. 3m pink mask and cross forced air ventilation is a must.
I managed to clean it to concrete slab, but I see there is a good beading effect when sprayed with water.
I plan on putting some some kind of CBP primer, I got one blue in color from HD which is stated to need a porous surface. I am unable to find the alternative for non-porous and it has a couple of weeks delivery time frame.
Nothing stops the stench coming out of the cutback. Just horrible idea of a madman to use tar/asphalt as adhesive on concrete as there is no cleaning it up, ever, unless one scrapes off the top 1/2" layer.
Didn't use beedadoo or any of the other oil-based solvents as they do nothing else other than dilute the gunk and spread it all over and into the concrete.
Next in line is a thinset and tile over 16 sq.ft and the rest laminate flooring.
Anyone care to spare some kind of guidance on what primer and thinset to use and not to use, vapor barriers and underlayments?
Thank you so much!

 

I guess asbestos threads are avoided like devil avoids incense

 

I'm commenting just to stay up to date on this. I have lino in my daughter's bathroom that I'm gonna be pulling up soon and the house is right around the same age.

Now you've got me a bit worried that I am gonna run into the same problems.

 

Could have just gone over it with something like laminate that looks like tile, engineered flooring installed as a floating floor, linolium ECT. and saved all that trouble.