latex screed on old quarry tiles.

[a bottle of gin]

hi guys , i am new to the forums and to tiling so please bear with me.

i have bought some 150 year old quarry tiles with what has been described as a latex coating. it looks like a self levelling screed of some sort.

apart from sitting down and chipping away are there any other ways to clean this off?
also , will chipping away at this stuff damage the tiles?

 

[murf]

Get a mini grinder with stone cutting discs and buzz out
the material on the backs of tiles. make sure you wear a dust mask
and do the work outside.

 

[a bottle of gin]

thanks murf , the screed is on the face of the tiles and the backs are relatively clean apart from the odd splash of lime screed.
surely a grinder would damage the tile face?

 

[murf]

My mistake, there is a type of grinder called a feinmaster that would probably do the job for you without damaging the tiles.

 

[a bottle of gin]

this jobby here?

Fein Fmm250q Multi Master Top 240v Kit, FEIFMM250QTOP at D&M Tools

do you think this screed might be brittle enough to chip off with a sharp chisel and hammer?

thing is i dont mind spending a few days doing it manually so long as the stuff comes off ok.

 

[murf]

Hard to know till you go at it. If you have plenty of time then just tip away with a chisel or scraper. quarries are usually very tough so they
should'nt chip too easily once you aren't too aggressive with them.
Good luck with your project

 

[Terry Cottar]

are those quarries 9" x 9"and about an inch and half thick?

tel

 

[a bottle of gin]

hi tel , i think they are 6x6 but they are 1 1/2'' thick.

 

[brian c]

IMO it is going to be really difficult to get the latex off the face of the tiles without damaging the face of the tile.Personally i think it will be a struggle,just being realistic.

 

[a bottle of gin]

would a chemical remover be more effective perhaps?

 

[simplythebest]

If i were you i would grind the leveller off not worrying too much about the face, After you have layed and grouted rent a floor polisher to get a decent finish and reseal .It wont be original but will look good.

 

[frankenfurter]

It's doable but it will not be the most pleasant of jobs, so heres a brief run down.

Some of the leveller you will be able to remove by pushing a 2" fine paper scraper between the latex and the tile; you can buy these from wickes. This prizes the latex of in sections.

What is left can be removed with a combination of a wire brush/fein carbide rasp and acid. If you notice the leveller is smooth surfaced, so this needs to be roughened up with the tools above and then apply a dilute solution of phosphoric or hydrochloric acid to the leveller. This allows the acid to breakdown the structure better.

Agitate the acid with a coarse scrubbing pad (wearing gloves) the leveller should foam up. When foam dies aways, rinse of and apply more acid and agitate until all gone.

As I said long winded, messy, potentially dangerous and remember plenty of ventilation especially with hydrochloric acid.

Why did you buy them with leveller on? There cheap as chips clean faced 🙂

 

[a bottle of gin]

thanks for the info , they are not that cheap cleaned. reccy yards want around 2 quid each or more for tiles like this, can you get them any cheaper? new ones can be cheaper but i will be laying these in a 16th century cottage so i wanted something that wont stand out too much , new quarry tiles might look a bit too new.
but the main reason i bought them was because i got between 6 and 7 hundred of them for five quid.:hurray:

when i bought them though they were described as being coated in latex , i thought this was a water proofing paint and would be easy to clean off.

i knew it would take a bit of work to clean them but i wasnt sure if it would be doable without destroying face of the tiles, to be fair though the tiles are 150 years old so they wont be perfect anyway.

 

[Terry Cottar]

i applaud you but having cleaned 1000's of them I would have paid the £1000 for the recaimed clean ones as opposed to the latex covered ones but if you have time on your hands and your labour is free then you may save a few hundred quid

tel

 

[DHTiling]

Hello ..

Chisel what you can off the face of them , then using a variable speed grinder or similar and start with a 50 grit sanding disc and remove as much residue as you can then step up to a 100 grit disc use that then a 200 grit then the tiles will look fine after that...those tiles look more like satillo and should sand back pretty easy...