nanllyn

We just took up 50 year old vinyl tile off of our basement concrete floor. Under the tile was a black glue/adhesive that won't come off. We even used a commercial strength adhesive remover but it didn't help at all. We have scraped it until the floor is smooth but we didn't know if we needed to take the adhesive completely up.
We are wanting to paint the flooring with waterproofing paint/sealant. Then we will be tiling the flooring.
So our question is do we have to completely take up the adhesive? And after we "paint" the floor with the waterproofer then can we just grout over it and tile?
Also it is a basement floor but the house is almost 70 years old and does not have any settling cracks. So do we need a tile membrane to prevent the tiles from shifting and cracking?
Thanks so much for your help. We just want to do this correct the first time so we don't have to redo it.
Nancy

nealtw

Products like Red Gaard are a sealer made for preping behind tile. Goes on like paint. I would think if you can get it to stick to what you have you would be good to go.

webshaark

Hi there, first, painting the floor before you apply your tiles will most definitely give more problems down the road than no prep at all. Second, if after 70 years the floor is not showing any stress or shrinkage cracks, odds are its not going to anytime soon and that would be the only cause for tile creaking to appear. We see the black tar like adhesives left behind by old vinyl tiles all the time. Clear as much as you can, scrape the floor as smooth as possible then with a GOOD QUALITY MORTAR, install your tiles. They are not going to give you trouble. Good luck.

isola96

If you do a paint you might as well do the zinser product it's not for floors it's for foundation walls puts drylock to shame as its a much higher grade sealer and goes on like paint.
Just because the foundation lasted 70 years doesn't mean that it's safe from now on, get a foundation expert to inspect it that's a lot of years to now start messing with it now.

webshaark

Not entirely sure how we went from tiling the concrete floor to having the foundation inspected?

oldognewtrick

Thread drift, not all answers are relevant to the origional post on the internet...but we try.

isola96

Lol I guess a little overkill on my part it was more of a opened question then a answer.
Why paint it in the 1st place?... But if that concerned about water or movement that would be a reason why to maybe get it looked at?.. If not then go for it

nanllyn

Well I should have explained a little more. The reason we took up the carpet as we have had terrential rains for many weeks. We have never had the family room get wet before. But with the ground so saturated, it soaked the carpet. Really soaked it. And after days and days of using a wet vac to suck up the water it just kept coming back. So we felt like we had to remove the carpet. Under it was the tile. It still wouldn't dry so we ended up taking the tile up. Now we have had lots and lots of rain but now the family room is dry. Go figure?? There are two hair line cracks in the flooring. Very hairline but cracks none the less. We can not prove that is where the water came from as they are completely dry now but those were the two areas in the carpet that were soaked first. So we are pretty sure that is where it came from. We wanted to put down a waterproof sealant so in hopes that it would not leak again. I just didn't want to make a long story.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Nancy

isola96

Thanks for explaining the reason Nancy now I dont feel bad about my prior post
The more it rains like before the water level in the ground will rise even if it has stopped raining this goes for anyone really.
Shop around for a product like the zinzer I mentioned before it's not for floors but see if they make it for floors. Literally will hold back the water the concrete will go before the paint.

webshaark

You should also try to keep in mind that if the ground is that saturated it is rising through the cracks in the floor slab, it most likely will continue to rise around the perimeter of the slab itself where it meets the foundation. Is there not a sump pit in this basement? It would be best to plan on removing the water rather than trying hold it back.