Renovating with Harbor Freight

[Michael Aos]

My wife and I bought a little house and fixed it up for her mother. With some help, we did most of the demolition but we contracted out the flooring, plumbing, and some electrical.

Again with help, we fixed up her mothers old house and sold it.

We bought another little house and fixed it up for my mother. Also contracted out the flooring, plumbing, and electrical.

One of the houses had peel-and-stick vinyl tiles, over Pergo, over Linoleum. I bet it took me two weeks to prep the floor for the installers.

In addition to what we already had, we've accumulated a lot of tools and accessories from the first 3 projects.

We're looking at another little house to set up as a rental. We want to pull up the vinyl in the kitchen and laundry closet, and remove the floor tile in the bathroom.

I was looking at the Harbor Freight 42" Long Reach Air Scraper. It's rated 10 CFM @ 90psi, so I was planning to pair it with the Harbor Freight Central Pneumatic 9 gal 212cc 135 PSI Wheelbarrow Air Compressor.

I have a little Dewalt 4 gal (4 SCFM @ 90psi), but I expect the Air Scraper would be too much for it.

I've read a few threads about combining multiple small compressors to increase SCFM, but it doesn't seem to be recommended. I could potentially pair my Dewalt with 5.3 CFM @ 90 PSI HF 10 gal 2.5HP 125 PSI Oil Lube or 21 gal 2.5 HP 125 PSI model. Duty cycle might be an issue.

Then finally there is the option of something like this 6" SDS Max floor scraper bit for my HF Rotary Hammer drill.

Any impressions or recommendations or thoughts?

 

[Michael Aos]

I should probably add that I already have a HF Predator 6.5HP Chipper Shredder jetted for 6000-8000' altitude and I've been impressed with the motor.

I'm also only ~3.6 miles / ~8 minutes from the HF store.

 

[frugalangler]

I recently pulled up tile on concrete in a basement bathroom using a sawzall with a scraper blade in it, and was quite impressed. I got a set of three (different widths) for IIRC about $20US at one of our local home supply stores. Unless the stuff you're removing is REALLY stuck, the SDS and air scrapers in my opinion wold be overkill given my experience using the sawzall one.

Shop Spyder Reciprocating Saw Scraper Attachment at Lowes.com

 

[Michael Aos]

I purchased that exact model from Lowe's and tried it to remove the peel-and-stick vinyl tiles. It was a no-go for that, but thank you for reminding me it might be just fine for this (potential) project. It's around here somewhere.

I may have permanently messed up my neck trying to remove that stuff with floor scrapers from Home Depot / Lowe's.

Ultimately I was most impressed with this QEP from Home Depot. Still a lot of work though.

I recently pulled up tile on concrete in a basement bathroom using a sawzall with a scraper blade in it, and was quite impressed. I got a set of three (different widths) for IIRC about $20US at one of our local home supply stores. Unless the stuff you're removing is REALLY stuck, the SDS and air scrapers in my opinion wold be overkill given my experience using the sawzall one.

Shop Spyder Reciprocating Saw Scraper Attachment at Lowes.com

 

[Michael Aos]

My issue with the Spyder blade was related to the length of the recipricating saw stroke. I tried it with an old corded Craftsman, and also with a 20V and 60V Dewalt. It would basically catch and bind and push back against me, but never seemed to move any material. I guess it could have been my technique.

I recently pulled up tile on concrete in a basement bathroom using a sawzall with a scraper blade in it, and was quite impressed. I got a set of three (different widths) for IIRC about $20US at one of our local home supply stores. Unless the stuff you're removing is REALLY stuck, the SDS and air scrapers in my opinion wold be overkill given my experience using the sawzall one.

Shop Spyder Reciprocating Saw Scraper Attachment at Lowes.com

 

[Michael Aos]

Both my local Harbor Freight stores are out-of-stock on the Wheelbarrow Air Compressor. I got a raincheck.
--

 

[two_bit_score]

If you are doing a lot of floor scraping do yourself a favor and rent one of these.

Buy Floor Grinders & Accessories | Zoro.com

 

[Travelover]

A hundred or so years ago, I worked at a rental store. We had a machine on wheels that had a tempered blade that jutted fore and aft to remove tile. It might be cheaper to rent something like that than to buy a new device.

 

[Michael Aos]

Sort of embarrassed to say I didn’t know that tool existed. I’ll have to check it out.

 

[frugalangler]

My issue with the Spyder blade was related to the length of the recipricating saw stroke. I tried it with an old corded Craftsman, and also with a 20V and 60V Dewalt. It would basically catch and bind and push back against me, but never seemed to move any material. I guess it could have been my technique.

Technique, yes! It took me a while to learn the feel for using it, letting it just touch the edge of the tile, not being aggressive which did give me the results you saw. When I backed off and let it 'finesse' the edge of the tile, it went at it very well, which I was then impressed with. I must say, at first, when it started bucking it made my arms hurt trying to absorb the recoil, yes a reciprocal saw has a very long stroke and you only want to use the last 1/8" to 1/4" of it.