Removing asphalt emulsion on concrete

[theroaringeagle]

Hi.

My garage was converted to a living space. The house is a typical San Francisco home, the garage makes up the whole ground floor. I took out the carpet, the plastic sheets underneath and I am left with a black coated cement floor. My neighbor believes this to be asphalt emulsion. I, for the life of me, cannot remove this stuff.

I prefer to have a nice clean cement floor. I've used all kinds of chemicals, scrapers, sanders but it just muddies up my tools without actually coming off. How can I resolve this??

I'm reluctant to use a sand blaster and a floor grinder, as they are both expensive to rent out here. If it's not feasible to remove this coating, can I just paint over this stuff with concrete paint?

[HayZee518]

kerosene and a scrub brush will break the surface tension

[pushkins]

Even then it's not going to be an easy or clean job, be prepared for some looooong hours and a lot of mess.
What are you going to use this area for ?

[theroaringeagle]

I want to use this area for my living space. I'm not a fan of carpet and want an easy to clean surface because my dog will be walking around in there. O also have a sliding door to the outside dirt yard so it'll get a bit messy inside from time to time.

The surface is fairly even, but it has a couple of slight ramps that go up to the the next rooms - the original concrete garage surface.

I think cleaning up this coating is a lost cause - judging by all the comments I've heard/read.

[HayZee518]

there is no easy way of removing the asphalt coating. it was applied to seal out moisture. besides scrubbing with kerosene, the other alternative equally as messy is with a 1 hp angle grinder with a cup wheel and a wire brush.

[pushkins]

If it were me I'd build a new floor over the top. Screw down 2x4's on their sides on 12" centers and add Advantech sub floor then cover that with whatever suits you.
This way you could also level out some of the ups and down in the original floor.

[theroaringeagle]

That's exactly what I'm thinking about doing now. Half of the bottom floor is garage floor. Part of the garage floor had been laid with linoleum and converted into a small room with a very uneven surface, where I used 2x4s as furring and laid some plywood over it. The floor is great but it took a long time. I wanted to avoid this route for the larger floor behind it, but it might be the only option.

This larger area floor however is somewhat pretty flat.

Since it has this asphalt sealer over the concrete, I can get away with just putting some of the 6mm vapor barrier over it and then lay my furring down?

I just need an easy clean floor to live on for a year or so. I may seal/varnish a plywood subfloor until I can get to real flooring treatment - I still have to tear down some walls and install overhead lighting over time. Would Advantech work well under this circumstance? It looks pricey.

[theroaringeagle]

btw, Thanks for the input guys!

[mrcaptainbob]

Removing glue...

Just thinkin'...and maybe not very clearly....would freezing it help in removing it? Would dry ice do the trick? I would think it would chip off and could easily be tossed in a can container for when it ... reverts back to it's sticky self?

[pushkins]

I use Advantech almost exclusively it doesn't matter if I'm doing a new build or renovation, it's real main advantage is it's ability to shed moisture until the roof is on and even after that with other contractors coming and going with the occasional spill, I just got into the habit of using the one product for all jobs.
As your situation is indoors, with little risk of rain (lol) you could use any of the other sub flooring products, make sure you stay with 3/4". If you want a longer life out of the sub floor while you decide what to cover it with, a coat or two of polyurethane will offer pretty good protection and kinda looks good too.

[SirGSS]

Just thinkin'...and maybe not very clearly....would freezing it help in removing it? Would dry ice do the trick? I would think it would chip off and could easily be tossed in a can container for when it ... reverts back to it's sticky self?

Y'know, that's a good idea. Kinda unnecessary, since it seems like he is going for the new flooring option, but that's something to file away for a rainy-day just-in-case.

[pushkins]

I don't actually think freezing it would work, roads freeze all the time and the asphalt doesn't come off. Plus the concrete base is very porous and would have without a doubt absorbed some of the asphalt giving it an even better grip.