Flooring Tile - Preparing concrete for tiling...

I'm getting ready to lay tile in 70% of my home. With the carpet up, I can see that when the house was built, the painters gave no thought as to how much paint got on the floor. Appearantly the baseboards where painted with an airless after they were installed, but before the carpet. So, all around the walls is about 6-8" of paint. How hard should I try to remove this paint? Obviously, loose flaking paint has to go, but most seems to be stuck very well. The surface of the concrete is very rough, so sanding it off would be a major job, but I'm a little concerned about the paint....

Any Advice????

The paint has to be removed. It's a known fact that paint can affect thinset bond. The paint has to be mechanically removed. Chemical strippers and paint residue can clog the pores of concrete and also affect thinset bond. So scraping, grinding is the answer and remove as much of the paint as possible. I know, this is not the answer you were looking for.:wall:

not only should you worry about the paint. but just as, if not more, important, worry about the flatness of the floor. do not take this lightly.

Well, sounds like I gotta break out the power tools for some paint removal. I'm hoping a wire wheel on my 8" grinder will take care of most of it.

For the most part, the concrete is pretty flat. There's a couple of low spots that'll be taken care of with some Levelquick and a high spot that I have someone loaning me a professional concrete grinder to take care of...

the 8" grinder will do it. i used a 4 1/2" & wire wheel to grind up glue. its pretty messy, but it works.