A customer in Phoenix gave me a tip about old tile adhesive that actually worked

I was doing a demo job last month, pulling up some old vinyl in a kitchen. The adhesive was that black cutback stuff, and it was stuck on there like tar. The homeowner, an older guy who used to do construction, came out and watched for a minute. He said, 'Try a little bit of vegetable oil on a rag, let it sit for five minutes before you scrape.' I was pretty sure it wouldn't do anything, but I tried it on a small spot. It actually softened the gunk up enough to scrape it off clean without needing a ton of chemical stripper. Has anyone else had a customer give you a good old-school trick that saved some time?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_grant342mo ago

That "greasy film" worry is real. Did you find the oil actually soaked into the floor, or did it mostly stay on the surface of the old adhesive? I'm trying to picture if it would mess with a primer later.

nora_park2mo ago

Honestly sounds like a lot of extra steps for something a scraper and some muscle would handle. That oil is gonna leave a greasy film you'll have to clean anyway, might as well just use the right stripper from the start. Feels like one of those "life hacks" that just makes a bigger mess later lol.

matthew1662mo ago

You're right about the greasy film, it's a real trade-off. I tried the oil trick once and spent more time cleaning the slick spot than I saved on scraping. My version of a "life hack" is usually just using the wrong tool for the job twice as hard. I once tried to soften some mastic with a hair dryer because I couldn't find my heat gun, just made the whole room smell like hot dust and regret.