Hi Folks,

I've purchased 1,000' of engineered flooring from Urban Floors (6" wide RL)with the intention of install myself. I've done lots of tile work and floating install but never glue down. Now the glue down isn't what's worrying me (yet) its the slab prep.

The area involved is kitchen,living room and hallway.. no doors just archways between them. We had ceramic tile in the kitchen part (500' ft) which I took up except I'm having a lot of trouble removing the remaining thinset, I've rented a floor scraper,and a polisher with 12 grit pads and bought one of those scrapers with the 4" blade. I've gone at this thing for 4 solid days but still thinset remains in small patches in several areas. its so flat to the floor that I cant get a scraper to it. I'm thinking of getting a surface grinder with dust shroud a to try remove the remaining thinset. Is this the best way?

There was carpet in the living room and when I removed it I found a long large crack in the slab(c 1/8th), pretty common here in Southern California. I've filled this and will use some SLC to flatten out the floor. There is some adhesive strips remaining even after I sanded them.. I'm planning to go at it with a blade. There is also some paint on the slab in areas too that has remained after sanding with 12 grit!

Right now I cant help but wonder with all these issues that a glue down is bound for failure and if I shouldn't just float the darn thing and save myself more than a $1,000 for glue. Right now we're staying at my parents-in-law and that ain't fun !!

Any advise on how to finally remove the remaining items? Am I nuts to consider floating the floor so we can get back home?

Thanks

Go to this website http://www.diamabrush.com/hand%20tool.htm relatively inexpensive diamond grinder does a fantastic job of grinding floor inexpensively.

In order to help those who come across this issue in the future

I rented a surface grinder with dust collector from Home Desperate for $35 for the day, bought a diamond disk for the grinder $50 and it did the job wonderfully. To take up the adhesive residue I bought a $10 blade that has a 12" handle like this one http://www.lowes.com/pd_19634-995-34690 ... facetInfo= worked great.

I use one of these, DeWalt 4hp 7" grinder with the double row diamond cup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13772863@N08/4627427994/

Hooked up to this Vac, http://www.dustlesstechnologies.com/hepavacuum.htm can't be beat for the price. The grinder eats concrete and thinset and zero dust out of the vac.

Nice vacuum. I looked for your dewalt grinder but can't seem to find it.IS the dust shroud bought separately ?

Paul, I got the DeWalt on Amazon, it is more powerful than the ones at the box stores. And the shroud is avaliable at dustless technologies as well. Their shroud has springs on it so it moves with the substrate and the edge pops off so you can get up to vertical surfaces. http://www.flickr.com/photos/13772863@N08/4627428054/

Still can't believe HD does not sell them. dummies

Cool. Now I get it Home Depot is funny that way.