Removing Rubber Crumb Deck Coating - i.e. Rubaroc

[A930Rocket]

^^^ That looks like it would do the job!

[1990C4S]

Home Depot rents these for a swing machine:




I have a swing machine, but I have to think it would dig in and grab on the rubber...a swing machine can be hard to control.

[1990C4S]

This is an option:




Or these:





Plus

[mgatepi]

Moving to a new house may be easier!
Good luck!

[908/930]

I would still try contacting Rubaroc, they must know a way to remove it. Have you figured a way not to breath in the fumes if you end up using a torch?

[gregpark]

^^The tile breaker is good for chipping up tile but that's about it. The floor grinder is what you need and rentable. I often use my buffer but it's a heavy duty one. To control you gently lift up to go right, gently push down to go left and tilt for forward and reverse. Very subtle gentle control movements though. I've had guys put the machine right through the wall when first learning :^(

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by 908/930

I would still try contacting Rubaroc, they must know a way to remove it. Have you figured a way not to breath in the fumes if you end up using a torch?

My dealer is a crook. Does business through an off-shore company, then claims he isn't responsible for warranty because 'a foreign entity did the work'.

And he is the national representative.

[Tidybuoy]

just be careful with the floor grinder/buffing machine. The natural inclination is to lean left or right to move it around but to steer it, you actually lift up or down. I highly recommend watching a few floor buffing fail videos first (ask me how I know )

https://youtube.com/shorts/LHyr3aWfrY0?si=ZqnRx9Dm60QJy3pf

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

just be careful with the floor grinder/buffing machine. The natural inclination is to lean left or right to move it around but to steer it, you actually lift up or down. I highly recommend watching a few floor buffing fail videos first (ask me how I know )

https://youtube.com/shorts/LHyr3aWfrY0?si=ZqnRx9Dm60QJy3pf

I have one, so I have learned the up down lesson. I haven't crashed it. Yet.

[1990C4S]

Update:

The torch is not useful. On the thick sections that are the most challenging, the rubber is too good an insulator, the bottom never gets hot enough. The torch does work on the thinner sections, but those sections are fairly easy to strip.

I am using a handheld floor scraper, but 90% is being scraped up with a Hilti demo hammer. It's hard work, but it's coming off, inch by inch. I might be better off with a 'sharper' scraper for the demo hammer, more of sheet metal blade than a thick concrete demo tool, I'm looking to see what's out there.

It would be very nice to be able to cut it lengthwise into strips, then roll the strip up, but it's too tough to cut. I have an abrasive blade on my worm gear Skill saw, but that trips my breaker very quickly. The zip-cut blade on my angle grinder works fairly well, but it can't cut all the way through the thick sections.

It's gonna be a long week.

[1990C4S]

Finally finished Phase 1. It was back-breaking work.

Before:



I ended up hiring a student to help me. It took about a week with two of us doing 6-8 hours per day.

In the thin spots the Hilti demolition hammer with a 'tile smasher' bit went pretty fast.

Unfortunately, when they installed the surface they did a levelling pre-coat in some areas, with just black Rubaroc and a lot of adhesive. Mostly it was 2-3" thick, but a couple of areas were up to 6".

In those areas I had to cut the Rubaroc into 6" wide strips using a worm-drive circular saw and a cheap carbide saw blade. Then the Hilti gun could slowly roll it off.

Helper at work:





Last night I finished the catch basin (draining rainwater to the back of my yard, and did a final scrape and sweep.






The flagstone is going down today. I wanted to do it myself, but we have a wedding here on three weeks, and realistically, I would need two months to that area on my own.

(The fence keeps the dog from walking in where we have stairs).

-

[Tidybuoy]

What a difference. Can't wait to see it with the flagstone.

[A930Rocket]

With you having to remove up to 6 inches, was the pool deck poured out of level or did it settle?

[1990C4S]

The pool was done about 30 years ago, I believe the plan was for brick or flagstone and then the deck portion would be level with the coping..

Nothing has settled, it was good plan that took 30 years to come to fruition...