I need to remove some very old vinyl tiles off a concrete floor.

Is there another way apart from a screwdriver, a scraper and lots of time?

A hot air gun can make it a lot easier.

+1 for hot air gun. Oh, and lots and lots of elbow grease. Did it last year in our kitchen, horrible horrible job.

Looks like it is the hot air gun and a lot of time!

Thanks gents.

we used a bolster and hammer on ours – but it did also need a lot of work, sweat and created a lot of dirt.

How old are we talking? (May contain asbestos)

Do you need to lift them? I had old lino tiles straight onto unsealed concrete in a house I used to own. 50% of them came up, the rest were going to be there for another 1000 years. We just ended up putting self-levelling compound down and raised the floor a couple of mm then put the new flooring on that. It wasn’t noticable.

Be aware that some old vinyl tiles may contain asbestos.

They are pretty old and probably do contain asbestos. However, as I understand it, it is mixed into compound and is very low risk.

I have some old vinyl floor tiles, fixed on with what looks like tar onto some very old and uneven flagstones.

So I was hoping there was a shortcut to getting them off, but if their isn’t might have to just levelling compound over the top of them

The heat gun is making pretty rapid work of them but monotonous work

Steam wallpaper strippers work on tile adhesive and artex. I bet they work on floor tiles too.

Have taken up trillions of old tile over the years

tool of choice is a ladies garden spade sharpened up with the angry grinder
or you can hire an electric stripper but they are not too good on very worn tiles.

we always try and get them up if possible. because screeding over them can cause issues later depending on what flooring you install on top

just done it
trout +1

(having rising damp helps… 🙂