Since you have obvious moisture issues with the cement floor of your basement, coating the entirety with mastic will not work. Vapor and water will continue to "bubble up" via your concrete and "crack & pop" any mastic layer you attempt to "seal the floor" with - eventually!!!!
You'll end up with friable issues with the mastic all over again.
Best method is to:
Contract with a registered asbestos lab to test a sample of your mastic (they'll chip off a bit of your concrete surface containing mastic.
Even if the microscopic analysis is negative -- you'll need to be prepared for a more expensive BURN test. It is 80%+ likely you will have asbestos in the mastic.
The wet scraping method is your only reasonable approach in your already proven "wet issues" basement floor.
Keep in mind that until you correct for these issues any thing you do with this basement floor will most likely cause you other issues/problems (cracking, MOLD etc.). You really need to address your moisture problems before you think about throwing more finish money into the project!
The encapsulation method suggested by fort's post number 3 is obviously contra-indicated by the information the OP has already provided regards to his basement floor situation/conditions.
Its a nasty job -- but somebody needs to do it.
The odors you describe regards to the black mastic are common, especially when in an "always damp" situation, especially after having been recently disturbed by your removal of the tiles. Thinking it is also likely that at some point you either created friction during removal, and/or used the assistance of heat to help in your removal. BTW, this suggests that a slury of mineral spirits will be your likely most sucessful aid in its (mastic) removal. Also one coat of laytex paint is a class III moisture barrier. |
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