Well, I decided to go ahead and tile my kitchen floor.

I went to take the linoleum up, and it came up just fine. The adhesive however did not.

I've tried a floor stripper (big heavy electric machine) and three and a half hours later I'm not even half way done. And my tendonitis is being aggrevated from using it.

We've also tried a chemical neutralizer. It seemed to work ok, but the fumes are very caustic. It's 100 degrees out and turning the a.c. off and opening the  windows doesn't sound very appealing either.

So does anybody know if there is anything that won't be to volitile to use that will get this stuff up? Or am a all out of luck on this one?

Depends on the adhesive, but I've had good luck removing many with a heat gun to soften it and a stiff bladed scraper to remove. Used paint thinner on a rag afterward to smooth out any rough spot.If all else fails, you may have to put down an underlayment and tile over that.

I just tiled my kitchen and dining room last spring. I had to scrape the entire floor with a floor scraper (sold at home depot/lowe's) and it took about a week to get it all up. Towards the end I found a technique that helped a bit. Use a little water and dampen the adhesive, then heat the area with an iron (ort heat gun if ya have one), then scrape. It tends to get the crap off in larger chunks.

I am planning on just tiling over my vinyl. Bad plan?
Opinions by professionals seem to be split on the issue. The ones that say you can do it, say to rough it with 60grit, mop with ammonia and then clear water, and then to use either epoxy or polymer modified morter.

The stuff in my kitchen is down solid, so I figured I would just tile over it.

If you guys have an opinion on the matter, I would like to hear it.
tony

Alright, I hope this helps Hexagram 13 (and anybody who might decide to yank linoleum up).

After looking into, and trying, a few different methods, I can offer this piece of advice......

....Go the chemical route.

The only thing that worked that wasn't a total pain in the ass was a product called EZ-UP.

Now this stuff has some serious vapors. So don't do this in the winter, as you will have to open up all the windows to ventilate.

But if you rip the actual linoleum up (the top plastic part anyway), you'll be left with the adhesive. Dilute this EZ-UP (bought at Lowes) stuff, spread it on your floor, let it sit for an hour, and scrape it up (with a big floor scraper). Works like a champ. And saves alot of wear and tear on the body. Seriously, this stuff comes right the hell up.

I can't believe I even rented that damn machine yesterday. It didn't work worth a crap. And wore my ass out.

Anyway, just a piece of advice in case you come across the same situation.

I went the chemical stripper route at first and also found it to be a big pain.  However, when mopping it up with water, I ran across the fact that water, yes, good old-fashioned H20, took up the adhesive way better than the chemical stripper.  With a little mopping and scrubbing, it came up ten times faster with water than it did with the chemical stripper.  I don't know if that specific to the type of adhesive.  It might be.