Removing old floor tiles (Festool comes to the rescue)

[Frank Pellow]

On Sunday, I started to renovate the bathroom that is attached to the master bedroom in our house. The first task was to remove the old floor. That sounds easy enough, doesn’t it. Well, let me tell you –it was not easy. The was one layer of vinyl tile over a layer of linoleum tile that had been partly removed. The bottom half layer, in particular, was both stuck hard and sticky. After about 45 minutes of scraping with various tools, trying out a hair drier, even trying some chemicals, this is how far I had advanced into the room:

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Then, I remembered a gizmo that might do the job. My Festool LS 300 Linear sander (567 777) came with a scraper attachment (491 199). I was very happily surprised at what a great job it did! :) :) Here are a couple of pictures of the attachment in action:
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It took only about an hour and a half to strip the rest of the old tiles (and this includes the time that it took to remove baseboards and the toilet). Here is another picture:
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There was still some glue residue on parts of the floor. I cleaned this up quickly (about 10 minutes for the whole floor) with my Rotex 150 sander (571 494) in aggressive mode using both 36 and 50 grit Saphir disks. Of course this operation was dust free. :)
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That’s the good news; the bad news is that I clogged up 6 sandpaper sheets (at just under $1 US each) doing the job:
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The underlying sandpaper is still very sound, so I tried cleaning off the gunk with a wire brush but was not successful. I can sort of pry it off but it took me about 15 minutes to clean up one sheet that way and I am not prepared to spend that much time at the task. If anyone has another suggestion for how to restore the sandpaper, please let me know.
One other Festool sander also came in handy. That is the Deltex 93 (567 738) which was really good at getting into corners and cleaning up edges.

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[Spokeshaven]

Looks like a great tool! What Festool product don't you have?

I hate to take this thread on a downer, but it's on my mind (and my thread in the off-topic section didn't yeild alot of info): how old is the flooring you pulled up and did you consider it's potential asbestos content?

[Lost in the Woods]

I remember you looking at my Multi Master when you were over for the shop tour in December at one of the breakfast get togethers. Yes my MM would have done the job your Festool did, but not sure which one would have been quicker. I didn't realize that the Festool was capable of this. Is it also capable of cutting attachments?

Don't you just love tools that do the things that other tools are not remotely capable of. And people wonder why we would buy what is in their minds as, such expensive tools.

Let me guess, otherwise you would have toiled at his for how many hours?

Kev

[Steve in Ayr]

Frank

Was the scraper for the LS300 optional. I don't recall getting one with mine. MIght be worth putting in with the next order.

Steve

[Frank Pellow]

Looks like a great tool! What Festool product don't you have?

I hate to take this thread on a downer, but it's on my mind (and my thread in the off-topic section didn't yeild alot of info): how old is the flooring you pulled up and did you consider it's potential asbestos content?
Actually, there are several Festool tools that I don't have -but I have the set that works best for me. There are no additional Festool tools that I can justify right now, whereas I can justify every one that I currently own.

The original tile is 35 years old and I did wonder if the green layer of stuff that looked like paper might, indeed, contain asbestos. I used gloves, a repirator, and the vacuum attached to my sander picked up all the dust.

[Frank Pellow]

Frank

Was the scraper for the LS300 optional. I don't recall getting one with mine. MIght be worth putting in with the next order.

Steve
Yes, the scraper was optional. It cost $17 (US).

[Frank Pellow]

I remember you looking at my Multi Master when you were over for the shop tour in December at one of the breakfast get togethers. Yes my MM would have done the job your Festool did, but not sure which one would have been quicker. I didn't realize that the Festool was capable of this. Is it also capable of cutting attachments?

Don't you just love tools that do the things that other tools are not remotely capable of. And people wonder why we would buy what is in their minds as, such expensive tools.

Let me guess, otherwise you would have toiled at his for how many hours?

Kev
The Multi Master still has some things (such as cutting attachments) that I don't have with my Festool tools. I am still thinking of buying a Fein Multi Master.

The best thing about almost all my Festool tools is that they do things their (so-called) competitors can not.

I hate to think of how long I would have toiled at this job without the scraper on the LS 300.

[J.P. Rap]

There was still some glue residue on parts of the floor. I cleaned this up quickly (about 10 minutes for the whole floor) with my Rotex 150 sander (571 494) in aggressive mode using both 36 and 50 grit Saphir disks. Of course this operation was dust free. :)

That’s the good news; the bad news is that I clogged up 6 sandpaper sheets (at just under $1 US each) doing the job:


I don't know, 6 bucks US seems an awfull low price to do that job in 10 minutes. I understand your desire to save the discs but I think you got your monies worth out of them. I can see that job taking me hours with the tools I have.
As a last ditch effort, I would try some heat on the disc then a wire brush. Then again what will it cost to generate that heat (fuel or electricity) and how much time is it worth spending to rejuvinate the discs.

Looks like you had just the right tools for that job. As you know, it could have been a lot worse.

[Matrix]

Hi Frank,

Now the important question.
When will you be taking on the position of Festool Canada?
You have done more to promote this wonderful line of tools than the current Canadian distributor ever has.
If you need any support, I will gladly give you written references.
BTW, Nice work on the bathroom.

[Frank Pellow]

I don't know, 6 bucks US seems an awfull low price to do that job in 10 minutes. I understand your desire to save the discs but I think you got your monies worth out of them. I can see that job taking me hours with the tools I have.
As a last ditch effort, I would try some heat on the disc then a wire brush. Then again what will it cost to generate that heat (fuel or electricity) and how much time is it worth spending to rejuvinate the discs.

Looks like you had just the right tools for that job. As you know, it could have been a lot worse.
Right you are about the discs J. P. I tried a couple of additional ways to clean them then gave up. I had already tried the heat and wire brush approach. Getting this job done with only 6 cloged discs was certainly money well spent, but I hate to waste anything.

[Frank Pellow]

Hi Frank,

Now the important question.
When will you be taking on the position of Festool Canada?
You have done more to promote this wonderful line of tools than the current Canadian distributor ever has.
If you need any support, I will gladly give you written references.
BTW, Nice work on the bathroom.
Don, the answer to your question is never. I know that I could do a much better job than Haffel, but that is being damned by faint praise -almost anyone could do a better job than Haffel. :mad: