Help, Ink removal from floor

[joelswork]

Hey all, I am working on turning an old "American Greetings" card shop into a youth center now. We have several areas on the floor that have a buildup of ink that is up to 1/2" thick and will not scrap up. One of the guys tried a concrete grinder last night but the ink just plugged up the pores in the sanding stones.

My question is, what is the easiest way to remove this old caked on ink. Will a solvent work, if so...what?

Thanks for everyones help!

:U Rock:

 

[signage]

What type of floor is it (ie. concrete, wood,laminate etc.)?

 

[joelswork]

Sorry about that, concrete floor. We are trying to prep it for painting right now.

 

[joelswork]

Thinking about a grinder

I think I might try a 7" grinder with a wire cup brush, had to do that on some nasty floor adhesive left over from the 50's...worked good, just have this pesky cough for the past 10 years

 

[Suz]

Not sure what the chemical content in the inks that you are trying to remove from your floor, but I'm assuming that the ink was used on a printing press since it was a greeting card business?

I deal with printing inks, mostly just plastisol inks now which are used primarily in garment printing. However, I do use some commercial water base poster inks sometimes too, and I find those inks the most difficult to clean up out of all the inks that I commonly use.

I love this stuff for removing really stubborn inks:

http://www.texsourceonline.com/p-1348-franmar-greenway.aspx

It's worth a try anyhow, if you want to avoid all the usual solvents. I like to spray it on the ink that needs to be removed and let it sit and soak in a while. Works like magic. Good luck!

 

[ridefst]

How about an air chisel to scrape the ink off the concrete?

 

[joelswork]

thanks for all the advice, I'll start workin on it next week!