Carpets, Lino & Flooring

Marley tile & glue on lounge floor - Removing tiles & glue, Fixing cracked concrete & Levelling

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.14 PM

Hi. I have recently bought a 1940's property & I am redecorating the lounge/dining room. The previous owners had laminate flooring down, but I want carpet. So I pulled some of the laminate up to check what the floor was like underneath as it does need levelling, but I found underneath the laminate were the old Marley tiles stuck down with the black bitumen. From reading around online I understand the Marley tiles do contain some asbestos, so I have been careful when lifting those tiles. But where some of the tiles were a bit more stubborn it left behind a lot of the bitumen glue that was used to stick the tiles down. My first question is, how can I remove this Bitumen glue so I can proceed to my next step? Secondly, there is a crack in the concrete where the house has slipped at one point (we had a structural engineer out to make sure the house was sound when buying & he gave the seal of approval). There seems to be a bit of moisture coming up around where that crack is, so I need to seal this crack & prevent any further moisture rising. What would be the best answer for this? Finally, the floor needs levelling. So once I have removed the bitumen glue, filled the crack in the concrete (sealing the damp course) would I be ok to lay some of the self-levelling compound to finally reach my goal? In my head the steps would be: Remove tiles Remove bitumen glue Seal concrete with moisture sealant (paint on fluid or damp proof membrane) Apply a screed on the concrete Finish with some levelling compound Does this sound like the right approach for this job?