Friday, July 30, 2010

Remove Tar Paper with A Walpaper Steamer

WALLPAPER STEAMER = EPIC WIN OVER TAR PAPER!!!!!!!TAKEN FROM AN ARCHITECTS BLOG, WORKS LIKE GANGBUSTERS!!
THIS REALLY WORKED FOR US TO REMOVE TAR PAPER AND THE ADHESIVE!!

The following was found as a respond to a post in a forum.(http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf40011047.tip.html) This is the only safe effective solution we found. Goof off and chemicals,total Garbage. Nothing works as well as the method he describes below.

"I am an architect in Milwaukee. I am on my second 80 year old bungalow. I am in the process of removing my second kitchen and hall way floors. I've tried most of the typical method...s, but today discovered the simplest, easiest and least costly process of removing linoleum and the tar paper backing and adhesive underneath them.

I can add my own two cents to the discussion.

1997: In my first home, I removed linoleum from the hallway by pulling it up. I then used heat gun to heat the adhesive and tar backing and scraped them off the hard wood floors. Very labor intensive and odorous.

In the kitchen of that house, there were two layers of flooring: a top layer of sheet vinyl with an underlayment and linoleum underneath that. We pulled up the sheet vinyl, pulled up the linoleum and scraped the tar paper backing and adhesive off the soft wood subfloor. Very labor intensive. It took forever. I was younger and stupid then. But it worked. Who knows what I breathed in when I scraped off the adhesive!

2007: With this kitchen floor, there was a layer of original linoleum covered with a 12 by 12 vinyl tile. I pulled up the vinyl tile and linoleum by hand, using a paint scraper to pull it up. I tried scraping the tar backing and adhesive, but decided I could not do that again. There had to be a better way.

I decided to try chemicals first. I bought Krud Kutter and also Jasco Adhesive Remover, both from Ace Hardware. I sprayed a 1 foot by 1 foot area with the the Krud Kutter and another with the Jasco Remover. Surprisingly the Krud Kutter worked better at removing the tar paper. It made it more pliable, but it still had to be scraped off with a lot of elbow grease. The Jasco worked less efficiently but seemed to soften more of the the adhesive than the Krud Kutter.

THE SOLUTION: I had removed wall paper from the walls in this room and cleaned the walls earlier in the day. Of course, lots of hot water managed to get on the perimeter of the floor at the walls. I noticed that this was surprisingly pliable. So, having read about boiling water, I put down an old bath towel folded in half on the tar paper. I then boiled a tea kettle full of water. I poured this on the towel and waited for it to cool. when I removed the towel, the tar paper and most of the adhesive wiped right up. It was a bit messy, but not too much so.

So, I decided that steaming the tar paper and adhesive would be the best choice. I went to Home Depot and rented a steamer for wall paper. It cost 20 dollars for 4 hours.

After warming up the steamer (about 25 minutes) I sat on a stool and laid the steamer applicator (which was about 8" x 12" on a section of flooring. I left it there for one minute to 90 seconds. Then moved it to another area to steam. The tar paper and adhesive scraped off the wood subfloor with NO effort. While the next section was steaming, I took a bucket with hot water and a heavy duty scotch-bright pad and scrubbed the area where the paper had just been removed, then wiped it up with a wet cloth.

In this manner, I removed the tar paper and adhesive from a soft wood sub floor in this area of the room (6' x 10' area) in less than 2 hours. It cost only 20 dollars for the steamer and little effort at all--in fact, if I scraped too hard I found that it would more likely damage the edges of the subfloor boards. I found it was best to pull the scraper towards me without a lot of pressure. The tar paper just peeled right off like wet paper towel.

So, the only method I would use is a wall paper steamer. I thought it would be messy and hard. I couldn't believe how easy it was."


-Dude. You rule.

No kidding. This process is safe and removes some of the risks that come with this type of removal. The paper and adhesive stay wet so it does not release dust.
The walpaper steamer costs about fifty bucks @ Lowes to buy or you can rent one. For the price of 2 gallons of goof off which really doesn't do squat,its totally worth it.

I wish we had used it to remove the carpet padding that was stuck to the floor in other parts of our house.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=179856&id=582088741&l=a2e9923db3
Oh yea for those of you who didn't know we bought a house in vestal ny.:)

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