In hunting down the source of a mildew smell in our basement, we found that mold has started growing under the sheet vinyl flooring in the laundry room. We are pulling it up, but some parts have been glued down, and we want to get even the old vinyl adhesive stripped from the concrete floor. Scraping doesn't get it all, and we need to get it all up before any remediation efforts will be totally successful.
Is there a solvent that can remove vinyl flooring adhesive? It's a a little over 20 years old.
There will be solvents that will dissolve the glue, expensive for you to buy ketones for example. Apply solvent and you will be left with a solution of glue in solvent, exactly what was started with when the glue was applied- gooey! More solvent will make it less viscous and then one could absorb the less viscous glue solution in rags, towels, ??? Add more solvent and repeat. Add a spark and the room will blow up. The fumes from all this solvent will probably overpower you if the spark doesn't get you. You could open the windows and fan but this is MN, you will get frost bite.
Bleach will kill every kind of mold ever invented. I would be surprised if the mold is growing within the glue. Bleach the crap out of it and I predict you will be good to go unless.....see below.......
This all started with water trapped under this floor. You need to solve the source of the water problem that started it all. Mold will not grow in a dry climate.
Well, today would have been the day for open windows at 58°. Tomorrow, not so much. We went to get a heat gun and will have to do the elbow grease version of stripping.
Mark and Bill have given you good advice. The danger of a Boom is real. When I was building, the floor finishers decided to speed things up by applying a coat of lacquer and coming back later in the same day and applying a coat of urethane rather than waiting a day or two for a primer coat of urethane to dry. They applied lacquer to an entire house and while standing there admiring their work, one of them lit a cigarette. BOOM. Fortunately all the windows and doors were open and there was no damage, but he was never able to wear those pants again.
There have been cases of mold growing under vinyl wall paper because they used wheat paste and the mold got a purchase. This was in a Warm Air conditioning climate where the humidity condensed under the vinyl. It acted as a vapor barrier but in reverse because the moisture was migrating inward rather than out ward as it would in a heating climate.
There is a point. Mold needs three things...warmth, moisture and a food source. And No, 4 would be a spore, but they are always present, so never get mentioned.
So, Bill is right, if your and get it dry enough, you won't have a problem. And the bleach will kill the mold and the spores. The problem is, it's very unlikely you can dry out a slab on grade enough and the bleach is not persistent. After the chlorine dissipates it game on for the mold again. So do as much as you can, clean up the goo, particularly if it has an organic (food source) component, dry out the slab as permanently as you can, and maybe try a more persistent mildewcide like Boracare. Make sure any replacements are rated to go on a slab below grade.
I have had good luck with a cheap HF multitool and a blades. I just knock the high stuff off and leave what ever is locked down to the floor on the floor. Sure beats elbow grease.
Would that be as effective as chlorine bleach at killing the mold? Less harmful vapors in a confined area and a good oxidant, but not sure of the mold killing powers. What say you, Mr. Tindall? Around here, you can get 8% food grade hydrogen peroxide in 5 gallon totes for $30 from water treatment companies. I use it for neutralizing H2S in my high sulfur well water at the river cottage.
A friend of mine works as a "forensic engineer" investigating accidents. He told me a story recently of 3 guys hired to clean an oil change pit at one of those quickie oil change places. They were using brake cleaner (containing hexane, I believe) to help get the dried oil and gunk off the floor. They aren't sure where the spark came from, but it lit off. 2 of the guys never made it out of the pit, and the 3rd didn't make it to the hospital. This was in an open-topped pit WITH a ventilation fan running. Definitely gives you a new perspective.
I read about using dry ice to turn adhesive into a brittle form. Apparently the bond to the substrate is weakened. Besides, the adhesive debris would be easier to cleanup as chips instead of gooey from a heat guy or chemicals.
Is there any reason to believe whatever is going down on this floor will be any less food for mold than adhesive? Is there evidence the mold was growing in the adhesive? I would add a powerful mold killer on top of what is left before adding a new layer of whatever is to go upon. Mercury is especially good for killing mold and keeping it from returning. But you should find something different.
I had a summer job in an ice-cream plant shipping department and we used dry ice. Every now and then somebody would come in to buy a few slabs of dry ice for tile removal but I never saw exactly what it did. Cutting 50 lb dry ice blocks was my first introduction to a bandsaw.
I get your humor - and a bit of mercury can go a long ways, although I was unaware of the antimicrobial properties.
I just hope non-chemists read through to the end and get that you were not serious. Of course I wouldn't even know how to find some Hg, except in my old thermostat (where is that thing?) or in an old thermometer.
Note that I am NOT asking where to get some Hg; none of us need to spread any of that around.
Bleach is readily available and easy, but non-persistent. I once treated for mold with a mix of propylene glycol (that is the harmless kind) and boric acid (roach powder). Worked great and I expect it is persistent due to the borate. I bet the residue would interfere with new glue adhesion however.
I think I would bleach it and then solve the damp problem, though that can be non-trivial to do.
not liquid mercury; a mercury salt coated on at the part per million level from a water solution. It would have been a common remedial before chemical paranoia became prevalent.
There are some antifungal chemicals that could be coated on. Not my field of expertise but I think they are quaternary amine salts of something or another. I think I have seen gallon bottles of the stuff somewhere, paint store?
If you ask at a paint store, they will add mildecide to paint for you. It comes in a little packet (about the size of a large ketchup packet), and is a paste, so it’s best for them to mix it in with their shaker. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve gotten it, but it was about $5 per gallon for them to add it. This is to prevent mold in the paint film (and behind it), but visible mold should be killed (bleached) before application.
"a blades"? I assume that was an innocent typo, so I will try to fill in the missing information. For this purpose, I use the putty knife or scraper blade. It has no teeth, just a knife edge.
That should have been obvious to me, but for some reason it wasn't. Especially since "all tools are kits," and I can dull and ruin MultiTool saw tooth blades faster than I can ever hope to resharpen them. That skill was a lot more important back when Fein was the only source for the blades, and they were much more expensive than they are now that Fein's patents have expired.
First, the heat gun didn’t work, quite. It softened the glue but the fumes were too much and they set off the smoke and CO2 detectors
What worked was a combination of things.
A BIG thanks to MikeL for suggesting the multi tool. I have one and using it never occurred to me. The scraper bade was what I used but it dulled quickly Over the course of the job, I learned that about a 30° bevel ground on the grindstone with an occasional touch up, a micro bevel applied with 5-10 strokes of a fine file. When the microbevel used up most of the primary bevel, I ground the blade again back to 30°. I completely wore out two 2” scraper blades.
We wet the paper backing residue and it peeled off pretty quickly.
There is still glue left on the floor, and it will have to stay there. It’s completely smooth, though, so it won’t interfere with any future covering we use.
