Resurfacing Concrete Over Carpet Glue and Cutback Adhesive

Polished Concrete floors have become new floor covering choice for designers and home Worldwide due to their artistic designs and durability. During renovation and remodeling of existing buildings, quiet often it is required to convert an existing floor covering like vinyl tiles or carpets into beautiful polished concrete flooring.

Before resurfacing

After resurfacing and sealing

If the existing floor covering in a bad shape, it must be removed before installing new flooring. Asphalt-based cutback adhesive remaining on a concrete floor after removing old vinyl tile and other flooring represents one of the most difficult and risky subfloors for the installation of new flooring. The removal of cutback using grinding, sanding or blasting may contain asbestos. This poses serious health concern. The modern polymer technology allows concrete resurfacing over these substrates.

The use of solvents based adhesive removers is precluded due to the smell of the solvents in occupied buildings. Quite often they are not VOC compliant and this greatly affects the LEED points.

The following steps are recommended for resurfacing cutback adhesives and carpet glues with a self leveling concrete, Param 5500:

1. Before installing the self leveling concrete, the installation contractor should ensure that the sub-floor is properly prepared.
2. Thick accumulations, powdery, brittle or otherwise weak adhesive layers must be removed. Use the wet-scraping method to remove the thick areas and build-ups of adhesive, and any areas that are weak and not well bonded to the substrate.
3. The hollow spots or non-structural cracks in the floor should be addressed before proceeding further.
4. The substrate temperature should be a minimum 45⁰F during application and air temperature maintained between 50-80⁰F. Adequate ventilation should be provided to ensure uniform drying.
5. The surface is primed with Param Süper Primer. It should be distributed evenly over the floor surface and then brushed into the substrate with a soft bristled push broom. Avoid pudding of primer. When applying with a pump sprayer, make sure to cover the substrate with an even coat to ensure proper penetration and follow immediately behind to work into the surface with a push broom. Drying time is 2 to 4 hours depending upon climate conditions.
6. The substrate is ready to accept self leveling concrete after the primer is completely dry. Please follow the link for instructions on installing self leveling concrete.
7. The surface of Param 5500 must always be protected from oil, salt, water and surface wear by applying a suitable sealing system. A very popular system is application of water based epoxy primer/sealer, Perdure E32 and then applying a coat of water based polyurethane, Perdure U46 (gloss) or Perdure U45 (matte).

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