Tiling over old self-levelling compound

[barry101]

Hi

I'm tiling my kitchen floor. I took up the old vinyl tiles and am in the (very slow!) process of removing the vinyl glue. Picture below...

Under some of the vinyl glue in some places, though, are dark patches of what I guess is old self-levelling compound. It's not across the whole floor, though.

I'm finding it almost impossible to get this stuff off. I've tried scraper, chisel, glue remover, heatgun and angle-grinder with wire brush. It's slightly sticky and smears a little bit on the top but below this is extremely hard.

My question is: can I tile over this? I'm taking off the (orange) vinyl adhesive but can I just put the adhesive over the old SLC? Should I even be trying to take off the old SLC?

I'm planning to prime the floor with SBR primer and use a thick bed adhesive (i.e. using a 20mm width / 13mm deep semi-circular adhesive trowel) of Bal Stone and Tile PTB as I've got large format porcelain tiles.

The property was built in 2002 and the floor seems completely level, in case that's relevant...

Would really appreciate your advice.

Untitled

• barry101
• 6 Nov 2014
• 1

 

[tpt]

Yes thats fine. if the vinyl adhesive is impossible to get off, you can go over that too. Depending on the adhesive you are using you can either prime it, then tile, or you can lay SLC over it then tile