How To Remove Tar Mastic From Hardwood Floors

When you remove that floor covering to make way for new flooring you may encounter the mastic and wonder whether it is safe to remove the main concern surrounding this question is that black mastic often contains asbestos.

How to remove tar mastic from hardwood floors.

Mineral spirits won t drive it into the grain. Common in homes built in the 20th century black mastic was used as an adhesive for ceramic tile linoleum and other flooring materials. Just score the hard top layer of linoleum to pull it off in strips then score and steam the felt paper glue tar paper and more glue. We took off the decades old linoleum off and there was black tar glue underneath that was impossible to get off.

Let sit 10 minutes or according to the label. You should be able to get enough off to then be able to sand the floors. One common method of removing mastic from hardwood would be to use a titanium plate with welded abrasive grit. Mop a degreasing solution over anything left.

The rough texture of the plate can remove substances off the hardwood floor. It was a lot of hard work but seemed to minimize damage to the floors and the amount of sanding required. However the surface of the titanium plate can cause heat to build up and cause the substances to become gummy and stick to the plate. The wood refinisher told us we needed to get.

That s when the asbestos concerns come into play.