How to completely remove all traces of mastic from old concrete

floor

My original aim was to end up with a, possibly stained, clear-coated cement floor. After removing old floor tiles, I rented a floor grinder which took care of most of the old mastic. There were still thin spots that remained, so I bought some product at HD that softened the spots for removal, but as others have said, made a friggin' nightmarish mess of it! Will the residue prevent sealers or other coatings from absorbing into the concrete floor? If so, would thinset even stick to these areas? I don't want the expense of tile, but I've about had it trying to clean up this tar-like mastic to clean and clear-coat this floor! Any suggestions? Thanks, Bill

Best Answer

I had an entry way floor some 30 years ago that had old hard vinyl tile glued down in it with the blackish-brown type of adhesive. I wanted to replace that tile with a ceramic floor tile so I peeled out all of the old tile. I then used a wide razor scraper to get most of the old adhesive scraped off.

enter image description here

After that I purchased a few gallons of aggressive paint stripper, opened every window in the house, shut off all gas appliances and pilot lights and poured out a layer of the stripper across the whole floor.

enter image description here

I let it sit for a suitable time (may have been about a half hour or so). Then working some with a wire brush and metal dust pan as a scoop I took up all the goop off the floor.

enter image description here

Finally using a bucket and a large sponge I washed up the whole area with a copious amount of hot water to remove all the stripper residue.

enter image description here

After the floor fully dried the surface was the nicest clean concrete surface you could wish for. I was able to put down the tile setting cement and had no problems with it adhering to the concrete.