Stripping Ashpalt oil from Vinyl tile??

[Tim Smith 14]

I have a commercial account with an asphalt parking lot. The vinyl tile has a blackest color on the high traffic area - from people tracking in the oil from the asphalt parking lot with their shoes.

Any recommendations on what to do?

This is very expensive tile - the manufacter is Halsted International.

[Celeste 341]

How big of an area are you talking about?

[Pams Pressure & Clean 64]

If it is properly sealed and waxed, I would suggest a strip & wax job. Or perhaps it could be salvaged with just a high speed buffing.

Anything strong enough to remove the tar would be equally strong enough to remove the wax, resulting in the need for a wax job anyway, so a solvent based cleaner would be largely a wasted effort.

If you are a VCT guy this could be a money maker.. if not, farm out the job to someone who is...

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Most important thing for protecting interior floors is to have walk off mats. The longer the better as the feet need to touch it a few times, and most people do not stop to shuffle like they would at home or a friends house.

Does the floor have any shine left in it? If so, you may be able to do a scrub and recoat, if not then a more aggressive cleaning is needed.

[Tim Smith 14]

Vinyl tile has never been wax - the tile is only 6 months old. It has a rough texture to it - suppose to look like sandstone.

I used a orange vinyl degreaser - it worked great, if I cleaned by hand, but did not work to good scrubbing with a mop. Do you guys use a buffer on vinyl floors?

[dk34 14]

I would use Aspir-solv from Diedrich chemicals, if the area is not too big. Here is the spec sheet.

http://www.diedrichtechnologies.com/page46.html

[RyanH 14]

I have a small machine I use on floors that would be ideal for this. It has three small rotating brushes (about 4-6" diameter each) arranged in a triangular pattern. I'll check on the name of the manufacturer when I go back to clean the place this week. I got it at at a janitorial supply store.

[chirobob 14]

You could try Kerosene, or even deodorised kerosene. All the asphalt companies over here use it to remove the tar from their dump trucks. Diesel will work OK. But I would suggest the deodorised Kerosene it's a little dearer than the normal kero, but more suitable for indoors application.