Bean-e-doo Mastic Remover by Franmar Chemical (5 Gallon)

Had around 200-300 sf of black mastic from 1965 to remove. Within about 5 to 10 seconds of contact it looked like I had coffee all over the floor. I let it sit for about 3 to 4 hours.I at first used a scraper to pull it up. Honestly, a squeegee worked far better. A SQUEEGEE FOR CLEANUP IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST. The concrete below was float finished, so the squeegee worked great. Rough finished concrete absorbs the mastic plus Bean-e-Doo a little.All of the mastic was pure liquid. I pushed it into piles of oil dry granules, the kind you use in the garage for motor oil. It was then easy to scoop up and properly dispose of.I cleaned up with degreaser, then dish soap, then water. I used about 3 1/2 to 4 gallons for two rooms. It’s pungent, but not too bad. It smells like a citrus cleanser.Don’t forget your PPE.

I have a 1000 square foot basement that had old vinyl tile on it. After the tile was removed, I had of course discovered the black mastic that will lead most people to this product. I watched several videos, read the reviews, and did my research on different methods of application and removal.Ultimately, I ended up needing two five gallon pails to fully liquify the mastic. The first pail liquified certain spots where I had put it on thick, but others were just tacky. With ten gallons of Bean-e-doo I was able to successfully liquify the mastic. The mastic turns into a black oil substance and was wasy to soak up and remove.My procedure for application and use was as follows. Using a small broom, I applied a liberal coat of bean-e-doo across the floor. I let the bean-e-doo sit for three hours and then went down stairs with a steel bristle deck brush on a handle. I squeeged the liquid around the floor until I located a spot that was still hard. I would then squeegee the liquid oil like substance into this spot and scrub it with my metal brush until it was bare concrete. After I had scrubbed all of the hard spots and successfully removed most of the mastic, I squeeged the mastic oil into a centralized location and covered it with four bags of kitty litter. I shoveled the saturated kitty litter into the empty beanie-e-doo pails and an additional bucket I had laying around. I sealed all three of these and took them to a disposal center.I used a mixture of one gallon dish soap and two gallons of simple green to degrease the floor temporarily while I prep part of the floor for demo and a bathroom installation. I again used the steel brush and scrubbed the floor as I went. This was followed by pressure washing the floor and then I squeeged it dry.Upon completion I intend to use the emerge degreaser that I purchased to remove any residual product left behind.On a side note, it did leave the basement smelling pretty bad, but with the new egress window I am cutting out it should ventilate well.

I have used this product in three rooms so far. Easy to work with and cleans up easy. No strong odor. I left remover on for several hours to overnight and removes mastic without a lot of effort, just scrap it up. If you follow instructions it works great. I recommend this product if you have any mastic to remove off concrete.

I’m iffy on my overall rating. To be clear, this worked wonderfully on cutback adhesive. I removed the VAT with a wallpaper steamer and a 6” drywall knife. In some areas, the tiles came off with essentially no effort. This was a mixed blessing: the more steam needed to remove the tiles, the less effort involved in removing the cutback (because most comes off with the tile). Alas, the converse is true: if the tile is easy to remove, the cutback is attached to the concrete, not the tile. (Also, a recommendation: put the tiles in very small cardboard boxes and then wrap the boxes in plastic— that will keep them from poking through the asbestos bags. When I say very small, I do mean very small, because those things are heavy in any quantity.).I used a 3/4” nap roller on a long handle to apply the mastic remover. The first application, I let it sit while I did something else. The second application, I walked around with a deck scrubber and scrubbed at every area where I’d applied the remover. The first time, I tried using a squeegee, but the concrete was uneven enough that the wide squeegee didn’t work well. (Also, one of the areas was a small bathroom in which maneuvering the squeegee was impossible— something I hadn’t considered.) The second time, I used a 7” floor scraper to move the liquid instead. That was more effective. In both cases, I ended up liberally covering everything with oildri quicksorb and then sweeping/vacuuming it up. The oildri worked wonderfully. I went after the floor afterward with the matching degreaser— which I’d give a low score. After two applications, there was still noticeable oily residue and smell. My third try was with Dawn dish soap, which seems to have been more successful. (Maybe the Blue Bear degreaser works better with a commercial floor scrubber?)The remover says it also works on carpet adhesive: let it sit 4 hours and use a scraper. My experience is that it doesn’t work on the carpet adhesive at all. Followed directions exactly; 0 carpet adhesive removed. (I can probably get it off with a steamer and scraper, but I was hoping for a miraculous success like the cutback.)I guess ultimately it depends on what you’re buying it for, and how much work you’re willing to put in. But! Learn from my experience: use a deck scrubber to agitate and a smallish floor scraper (instead of a large squeegee) unless your concrete is like glass.