Glue Hardwood Floors Over Asphalt Cutback

Cutback adhesive is an asphalt based glue that was common years ago for attaching vinyl or asphalt tiles and it usually contains asbestos or crystalline silica.

Glue hardwood floors over asphalt cutback.

Asphaltic cutback adhesive is an older type of mastic made with asphalt based cement. Over the most recent thirty years the most popular method of installing solid 3 4 hardwood on concrete was a plywood subfloor attached to the slab illustration above. If vinyl backed flooring is placed over cutback adhesives plasticizer can migrate from the vinyl backing into the cutback causing it to become soft or liquid. Many modern mastics are latex or water based and can be softened with water.

Mastic is the general term for a type of glue like flooring adhesive. Cutback is the black asphalt based adhesive that was frequently used to install vinyl asbestos tile asphalt tile and vinyl composition tile. As a petroleum based material the cutback is not softened by water. Both of these products are able to encapsulate both cutback and water soluble adhesives.

While installing be sure to do small areas at a time. Hardwood adhesives will not adhere to cutback adhesive. Some cutback adhesives contained asbestos. Once you have decided to use the glue down floor method make sure that you leave a large enough expansion gap depending on the hardwood product you chose from the wall to allow the wood to contract and expand.

The cutback adhesive could be covered with a cementious patch or self leveler and then use either a resin base or urethane adhesive. There were different types of black adhesive used in flooring over the last few generations. Dritac eco dribloc can be applied over carpet adhesive residue and asphalt cutback adhesive residue as long as the adhesive ridges and raised residue have been completely removed from the subfloor with only minor stains remaining. If using the triseal the only hardwood adhesive i would use would be dritac 6200 because it can be used dry to the touch.

There was a very similar black adhesive used for wood floors. The trade lingo jargon i learned for this was cold tack which smelled and looked like cutback but it was much thicker. Cutback was specifically made for vinyl and asphalt tiles. Using a minimum 5 8 cdx 3 4 recommended plywood the material is installed over the same moisture barriers mastic excluded but attached by way of concrete fasteners.

In the replacement market today most adhesives including carpet and resilient flooring adhesives are not compatible with cutback because it is an oil based product. You shouldn t try any method of removal that will create dust such as sandblasting dry scraping or dry sweeping as breathing in the particles is extremely. It is a black asphalt based adhesive frequently used in the past to install vinyl asbestos tile asphalt tile and vinyl composition tile often containing asbestos. Today most adhesives are not compatible with cutback because it is an oil based product.

See photo of cutback bleed through with vinyl backed carpet tiles. The most problematic issue is when there are remaining traces of cutback adhesive on your floor and it s not just because it can bleed through into your epoxy flooring. The adhesive is spread on an area of the subfloor where the boards are going to be adhered to using a specialized trowel.