We have purchased Mannington 3" engineered Hickory that we are planning to glue down to our slab (this week). We have renovated the home (including changing locations of walls). The slab is at grade. Previously, it had tile, carpet, paint, and old glue down linoleum. Over a year ago, we cleaned out all those different flooring types and put down a coat of floor paint to cover the entire 1000sf area.

We knew that paint and glue down floor did not mix, but we thought it would just add a couple days of prep work. Well, we have been grinding (blocks) and sanding (20 grit) with a rented floor buffer type machine and the paint is simply not coming up. We are trying to decide how to proceed and would love some input.

Also, today we used chemical stripper to remove some paint. It worked wonderfully, but then we realized that it is not recommended. We then cleaned that area with Acetone (which the flooring adhesive manufacturer recommended as a possible solution to the paint problem).

1. Painted area - Should we continue on with the plan to glue down onto the roughed up painted floor?
2. Chemical Stripped area - Will this area come back to haunt us even more than the paint?
3. Do we need to regroup all together and put down some sort of subfloor? (we went with engineered floor to avoid the whole plywood subfloor process).

BTW - We really DO NOT LIKE floating floor. That would be a very last resort.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. We really appreciate it.

Don't glue over the paint. You need a more agressive machine than a buffer with a sanding disc on it. Where the paint stripper was would need grinding off. See if you can find a guy there who has a shot blaster.

Thank you so much for the reply. After much reading last night, we came to the same conclusion - we had the wrong equipment. Today, we went to a more "professional" rental shop and they set us up with a shot blaster. They did such a better job understanding our needs and finding us the right thing. It will be ready for us this afternoon. (I am irritated that the first rental place sent us home with the wrong equipment, blind leading the blind, but we are past that now)

Will the shot blaster be sufficient for the area that received the chemical stripper too?

Again, I really appreciate the help.

Bianca (South MS)

once shotblasted i would recommend a primer for glue down installation

You may need to skim coat with Ardex sf or equilivent prior to gluing. Follow the glue manufacturers instructions for prepping a concrete slab. And you should moisture test plus probably use a trowel on vapor retarder as well.

Don't be afraid to call the glue manufacturer's help/tech line.