Review on 🛠️ Efficient Concrete Surface Restoration with BLUE BEAR 500MR Mastic Remover in Gallon Size by Darin Marshall

PROJECT: 58 year old black asbestos putty for cracked, battered, peeling asbestos tiles. WHAT I USED TO REMOVE THE MASTISH: - Blue Bear 500MR - Rust-Oleum Concrete Degreaser - Rubber disposable gloves - A cheap throw away scraper. A cheap throw away brush. Disposable overshoes. litter box. metal shovel for dust. (No paper towels) BRIEF STORY First attempt: Soak for 2 hours Result: Kind of worked, but not quite - There was still a lot of water on the floor and my patience ran out after lifting the tile so I didn't done t. I didn't spread the 500MR as well as it should have. - The water added when removing the tile diluted the 500MR so it was nowhere near full strength. Second attempt: 12 hour soak time. After trying, I applied 500MR again and covered the floor very evenly. Leave it overnight. A little cleaning, kitty litter and a few spritzes of degreaser gave us a mastic free floor! LONG STORY: Story: We just bought a 1960's house. and it has asbestos tiles everywhere (tested). No big deal since we're going to be covering it with another flooring anyway. However, a popcorn ceiling in a workshop and damaged tile in a laundry room are not an easy cover-and-forget solution. We expertly removed the popcorn ceiling and I got down to the tiles. After watching video after video about the different ways to remove this black tar glue, I finally decided to give the Blue Bear 500MR a place to start. It was a bit pricey but I liked the idea of it being biodegradable and their videos made it so damn easy. In case I didn't make it out alive, I entered a plastic and tape sealed room armed with a squirt gun, hand tools and a 500MR. After two hours of water splashing, tile scraping, and muffled expletives in my respirator, the tiles were removed and it was time for the 500MR to step in front of the stove. Don't give the 500MR a setup that will lead to its success. The floor was still wet from the water and I was about to burn down the house I had just bought. I dumped a little less than half of the 500 MR on the floor, laid it down (sort of) and stripped off my astronaut suit to get into a makeshift decontamination shower. We went back to our apartment, had dinner and I came back two hours later. The mastic remover did the best it could with my sloppy setup. All the water I left on the ground diluted the 500MR so it lost some of its power and my spreading job was lazy at best. After cleaning all the water and 500MR with kitty litter, I gave 500MR the second chance it deserved. I reapplied 500MR, mostly with rubber gloves, to spread it very evenly over every square inch of cleaned floor. I then left him overnight and returned to the bottom the next morning, which was easily removed from his black mastic burrow with a brush and some more cat litter. A few circles of degreaser and the floor without mastic! Conclusion: What I thought was the easy part, removing the tile became the bane of my existence. And what I thought was going to be the hardest part of the job, removing the black putty was very easy with the Blue Bear 500MR (after actually taking the time to get it right). Things I learned that might help you: Don't let the 500MR dilute with water. That also does not work. Simply rinse off with water before applying. It doesn't have to be dry (and it doesn't have to be dry if you're dealing with asbestos), just not standing water. Cat litter is great. For me it worked much better if I made a small garbage heap and swept 500 MR/Mastic Soup onto that heap instead of throwing garbage all over the place. Kitty litter becomes doughy and difficult to move when it starts soaking it up. I was nervous that the 500MR would dry out if left on the ground for too long. It's not like this. It's permanently similar to olive oil, so I'm sure the longer it sits the more it penetrates the concrete. This results in a very easy removal of the mastic, but also in a longer degreasing time and possible discoloration of the concrete. So use your judgment to find a good balance of what is important to you. We're installing a new floor in the laundry room, so we didn't care if the concrete got dirty. - Put on booties. Shoe covers are soaked in oil/degreaser and won't protect your shoes from stains and stains all over, but they will prevent the tread of your shoe from hardening with cat litter paste that isn't very pleasant to remove. They're also cheap, easy to take off, throw in a mastic trash bag, and swap out at every step of the process. You will use a lot of paper towels. Buy good, thick, blue paper towels from the store. Regular kitchen paper towels will not work. (Sorry Bounty) I hope this helps someone with the mastic removal process. And please do not dispose of or handle anything containing asbestos unless you are sure you can do so safely and responsibly and in accordance with your local DEP code. It's not worth the risk. What, as they say. That's great.