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My bathroom tile job turned into a three day fight with old adhesive

I figured pulling up the old vinyl would be a morning's work, but the mastic underneath was like concrete. It took me three full days with a heat gun, a scraper, and a lot of elbow grease just to get the floor clean. Anyone have a better method for that rock-hard black adhesive from the 70s?
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christopherj63
Oh man, that "three day fight" line hits home. I've been there with that old black mastic, it's like fighting tar. The heat gun and scraper method is brutal, just hours of slow, hot, dusty work. I found using a rented floor scraper with a sharp blade made a huge difference on the last bit I did. Still a horrible job, but it cuts the time down a lot. Solidarity, that stuff is the worst.
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miles_perez
Wait, you actually rented a machine for that, @christopherj63?
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