Re: [VAL] how to remove contact paper

[Glyn Judson <glynjudson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    All,

    Stream of consciousness here.  Joe's reference to removing the self
paper brings to mind a method of floor tile removal I used to see the
Facilities Department guys employ at Hughes Aircraft Co. where I worked for
a little short of 100 years.

    Test labs all over the campus used large, shoulder-high tanks of
nitrogen for bringing electronic equipment waaay down in temperature, etc.

    One day a Facilities fellow welded up a contraption to accept one of
these tanks so as to be able to roll it around on a slight angle off
vertical, sort of like one would do using a hand truck.  He rigged up a
manifold across the front near the floor and to that attached a series of
wide mouthed nozzles.  The manifold in turn was hooked up to the tank and
all a fellow then had to do was to roll this contraption over a floor of old
asphalt or vinyl tiles with the sprayers doing their thing and in as much
time as it took to pass over a section, the tiles were frozen rock hard and
made brittle as glass.

    A fellow followed behind with a very wide snow shovel and peeled the
tiles up into small pieces just as nice as you please leaving behind smooth
concrete, devoid of even the mastic used to lay the tiles in the first
place.  All this went slightly slower than it would take to go over the
floor with a vacuum cleaner.

    Pretty neat, huh?

    Glyn