My husband and I just bought a 1928 bungalow which we love! We took posession yesterday and our first task was to pull up carpet and old linoleum (in terrible shape; beyond salvaging) from the dining room. We found, as expected, a thick layer of tar adhesive. We've been advised to remove it with mineral spirits and a scraper, being careful not to scar the floor (looks like oak) underneath. Has anyone had success with this method? Would you recommend turning it over to professionals? <br> <br>

Thanks for your advice, everyone...we tried the mineral spirits and it just wasn't working...and while the water idea was intriguing, we've got so many electrical and heating doodads in the area that we were nervous about that. So we had it professionally redone and it looks great except for a few areas where it was permanently stained by the tar--which we'll probably have patched. Here's the funny thing, though...it's not oak at all, but something that is much lighter (maybe maple?). It was just stained so dark from the tar that it looked like an entirely different species of wood! So it worked out for the best--only now I am eager to come up with a new question for you nice people to answer! <br> <br>

I believe it is called mastic, and water worked fine for us! Just get a wide, strong scraper and be prepared to spend many hours perched on a paint can. But it works. My husband & I did it, too, and our kitchen now has beautiful wide plank fir floors! <br> <br>

I have recently been through this with an <br>upstairs bathroom. We honestly had the worst <br>time trying to remove the tar adhesive from our <br>floor. We tried EVERYTHING, including the <br>afore mentioned mineral spirits and soaking <br>the floor with water, and that adhesive wouldn't <br>budge. We got up as much as we could with <br>scrapers and after a week of struggling with it <br>(and sore backs!), we decided to called in a <br>professional. Our bathroom is so small that <br>they only charged us $150 to completely <br>refinish the floor. It's beautiful now! <br> <br>My advice is to try to get up the adhesive <br>yourselves but if you run into problems, don't <br>be afraid to call in a professional. Most of <br>them give free quotes and it might not be as <br>expensive to hire someone as you think. <br> <br>Good Luck! <br> <br>

Congratulations to you and your husband, and welcome to the clan! We bought our old house almost 5 years ago and we are even more in love with our bungalow now than when we bought it (hard to believe) despite all the work - once hooked you are forever addicted. <br> <br>The mineral spirits should work fine unless something unusual was used. One word of caution, please be sure to have adequate ventilation (open some windows if nothing else) and make sure you have no open flame about...that includes your pilot lights on water heaters, stoves, etc... <br> <br>Happy renovations! <br> <br>

Last year,we removed a layer of old vinyl from the oak floors in the kitchen and breakfast room of our most recent house. We simply assumes that we needed to use mineral spirits to remove the adhesive, but that wasn't the case. Although the adhesive was black, it was water soluable -- we found this out after we had tried lots of mineral spirits and special adhesive remover without much luck. We had to put a fair amount of water on the floor and let it sit, but it did the job and it did not damage the oak. Yours may not be water soluable, but it won't hurt to try soaking it in water. <br> <br>

Your experience isn't uncommon... most of us automatically assume the glue is petroleum based when in fact it's water based. Sounds like we should all try the soap and water routine first! <br> <br>