The Flooring Expert

Q: What is the best way to remove the thinset?

T&B Flemming

A: There are several methods to removing thinset. You can use a grinder to grind the thinset down, use a hammer and wide chisel to chisel this away or get a machine chisel. Go with the automatic chisel to remove your thinset. This will be a strenuous process, but its the fastest and easiest way of the three.

Go to a local tool rental place and rent an electric chipper with a 4-inch (or wider) chisel tip. A good example is the Hilti TE505 and these on average can be rented for around $40 per day. These devices resemble a jack hammer, but the advantage is they will not destroy your concrete subfloor.

Keep in mind, these things are big, heavy and loud. This being said, wear eye and ear protection and take breaks to give your hands and back a rest, cause you may regret it otherwise. Also, be prepared to stop and vacuum up debris and dust because this will be somewhat messy.

Start by holding the chipper at about 30 degrees off of the vertical (hold at a 60 degree angle) and let the machine shake the chisel against the thinset. This will break up larger chunks. You will want to do one pass like this to remove a good portion of the thinset. Then go back across the remaining thinset holding the machine at a slightly shallower angle and press down hard on the forward handle (usually your left hand) and use your opposite leg (usually your right) to hold the machine steady. This will smooth out the surface and remove the remainder of the thinset. Remember this will be tough and can be somewhat hard to control at first, so be prepared.

Q: After pulling up the carpeting in my living room, I found red oak hardwood floors. However, they're 40 years old, and in poor condition due to water and pet stains. I was considering having them refinished, but due to logistics problems (where to put the furniture, where to live while the work is being done, etc) I think a prefinished hardwood floor would be an excellent alternative. Aesthetically, I would need to run the strips in the same direction as the current floor. I was told that it's not a good idea to nail the new flooring to flooring running in the same direction. Would it be a better idea to rip up the current floor and nail the new floor to the subfloor? How difficult would that be? Would the bumps left from the nail holes be a problem?

Mike P.

A: Nailing a new hardwood floor in the same direction of a pre-existing hardwood floor is a bad idea. The major reason behind this is a matter of stability. In this case, if you are unwilling to take the time to repair and refinish the original floor (which I would not suggest based on your mentioning of water damage) you will want to remove the existing hardwood floor and replace it with a new floor.

The pre-existing nails should be no issue after removal, although I would heavily suggest hiring a professional for this project as removing a pre-existing nailed down floor can be tedious and will take a few days. Once the old floor is removed, you will need to examine the subfloor below, check for areas where you may need to screw down areas to reduce squeaking. Afterward you can then install your new floor.

As I said before, I would suggest consulting a professional for this project, but if you take plenty of time this can be a good DIY project (although it might be a bit strenuous).

Q: What is the best method for removing laminate flooring?

Brett B.

A: The “best” method for removing laminate is always which one works easiest for you, but to give you a better answer, this will be based on how old your laminate is.

Newer laminates which use click together locking mechanisms can be lifted and unlocked a row at a time to be removed. This can be difficult and locks could endure some damage, but if you intend to completely remove your old flooring this won't matter.

Older laminates were glued together. In this case they are similar to a floating hardwood floor, where glue in placed in the tongue and groove to anchor the planks together. In these cases you will want to break the flooring up and remove it. First use a skill saw, set for a hair more than the thickness of the plank and cut in 18 inch or so sections then use a wood chisel or similar bar to pry apart or break apart the planks so they can be removed. Again, the method and care here will be based on if you want to salvage the flooring or not. If you're trying to remove only a few boards, cut down the center of those boards with the saw and use your chisel to remove the planks in question.

Q: I took down a few walls and now have to add uniclic/quickstep flooring where the wall used to exist. To do this I need to remove some of the existing planks (to get proper matching). Is there a good way to remove planks without destroying them so that they can be re-used? Is there a tool one can buy?

A: I don't know of any specific tool to accomplish this; however, what you can do is gently lift one board upward so that the bottom half of the locking mechanism is pulling away from the top section of the lock. If you are having trouble doing this, try using a rubber hammer to give a light tap near the edge of the plank just before the locking mechanism to help disengage the lock. This will be a matter of patience and taking time to make sure the lock is not damaged.

Q: I am going to remove 3/8" thick x 1 1/2" wide oak plank hardwood flooring in my house. I was wondering if there is any tips to remove the planks and the nails so that I don't ruin the pieces? I would like to re-use that wood in the living room kitchen area.

Thank You,
Klay

A: It's easier than one might think. There is a 5' pry bar that is made for this task, so getting the floor up is fairly speedy, but you should have two folks working as a team. Once the material is up, have a large pair of curved jaw vise grips or the equivalent. Something the shape of a large pair of water pump pliers that will enable the user to grab onto the fastener then roll it over which will pull the staple or cleat through the material with out damage. It may distort the tongue a smidgen, but it should not render it useless.

After a while it becomes fairly easy.

Q: We have builder installed Bruce Natural Hardwood flooring (NOV 2001) installed in our kitchen and foyer. This is the nail/staple-down type. Despite following the maintenance and care instructions, the flooring looks simply awful. There are several cracks and lots of blackening in between each piece. We would like to remove the flooring and replace with a laminate however, I'm concerned that removing the flooring would be an awfully large task for DIY but I'm afraid too expensive to bring in a professional. There are several rooms connected to the foyer and kitchen and we plan to laminate those currently carpeted floors (about 1100 sq ft). We are very familiar with installing laminate flooring at previous homes and simply love the durability of it.

If we were to make this a DIY project - what would be the best way to pull up the existing flooring?

Many thanks!!!
Jamie

A: This process is actually much easier than you might think. There are several tools that are made specifically for this kind of work. There is a 5' pry bar made for this task and as long as you work in a two person team this should make removing your floor a rather quick task.

The problems you mention with you flooring tends to happen when moisture is getting absorbed by the floor. The blackening is typically rot, mold or similar nasty problems related to your wood floor absorbing too much moisture from some source. I would highly suggest having the humidity of the air in your home tested to ensure it is not too high. Typically this level should be between 30 and 50%.

Q: Our home was built in 1965. It has some amazing peg hardwood flooring throughout the house. (70% of the flooring is this). The problem is the Den, Breakfast Nook, and Hallway sub flooring all have grooves due to age and weathering. The crawl space under the home is right below these areas. How can I go about taking this up with minimal damage to replace the sub flooring and then reinstall it? Can I salvage the peg hole fillers or will I need to cut new fillers and refinish the flooring? From what I can tell this will be a very long project if I do it myself. Should I try this or get a professional? I've done several tile projects as well as putting down hardwood flooring but this might do me in.

Thanks,
Steve

A: Let's go into some of the history of pegged floors before we get directly to removing the current floor. Many floors have the pegged look from the mid to late 60's up through the 80's. True pegged floors typically are a width of 7" or more. These boards were drilled somewhat to make a recess for face nailing, then pegged with a dowel to fill the recess. After the peg's adhesive had cured, you then would sand and site (also called Swedish) finish the floor. The reason for this technique is that wide boards over time will rise a bit. Improvements in milling since the old days (back when all floors were scraped on site to smooth them, then finished after installation) have prevent the necessity for pegging floors, but the look itself was popular from the 60's through the 80's.

Alright, let's get out of history mode. More than likely your floor is one where the pegs are there purely for appearance and not to cover face nailing. In this case the floor should be nailed through the tongue at a 45 degree angle. Pulling a few boards carefully should show this to be true. Removing these boards is simply a matter of patience and evenly applying leverage across the length of your board (even movement should prevent and splintering). Here you will just need a pry bar and some patience. When this floor was new it was likely a prefinished product with an oil based finish, so you will want to at least screen and recoat the floor after reinstalling it.

When removing the boards, number them with a pencil on the back and bundle them accordingly to help keep the boards organized so it makes reinstalling them easier. In the case that your floor is truly face nailed, similar even leverage will need to be applied to remove them, but in order to reinstall them you will most likely be forced to remove the current pegs, remove the nails and use new nails to anchor the floor, then peg, sand and finish the floor.

If you want to make sure the floor is taken up carefully, it may be best to have a professional do the work for you, but make sure you find someone experienced in pegged flooring and who has reclaimed flooring in the past to ensure the floor is taken up properly.

Q: I have the first floor kitchen, living room & corridors oak. It is glued to the concrete slab. I have 2 other rooms on the floor with a wall-to-wall carpet on the concrete slab. All of this is on the first floor. What are the important steps to replace all of this with new engineered hard wood floors? How should the old floor be removed, how will the old glue be scraped off & should there be leveling?

Thanks

A: Removing any flooring which has been glued in place is one of the toughest jobs out there, but with a bit of patience and time, you will get the job done. Before we get too in-depth on what you will need to do, let's first talk about time and tools. On average, removing a glue down hardwood floor will go at a rate of roughly 10sf per hour. This includes time required to scrape away the adhesive from the subfloor. With that timing in mind, I would advise looking into some temporary labor to help you out in the removal process. This could be anything from temp labor to convincing a few friends to help out in exchange for a well deserved meal from the local pizza joint.

Now let's talk about the tools you'll need to get this job done. First off you will need a good circular saw (aka skill saw) and plenty of spare blades. Next on our list will be a pry bar and a small sledgehammer, typically a 3lbs. sledge does the trick nicely. Finally you will need some scrapers to remove the adhesive. Typically one with a 3" to 5" blade is going to be your best bet.

For the actual removal process, you will want to first cut your wood flooring into sections about 12-18 inches in width using your circular saw. Make sure that you are cutting deep enough so that the blade is just barely touching the concrete. This will ensure you cut entirely through the board which is critical. Your saw blades will dull fairly quick so be ready to replace them. Also, make sure that any adjustments you make to your saw are done with the saw unplugged (better safe then sorry).

To start, make your first cut 15-18 inches away from the wall and try to follow the seam of the flooring as best you can along the entire length of this dimension of the floor. Make one or two more cuts a similar distance from this first cut, then make perpendicular cuts about every 12-15 inches along this area. This will work as a good start point to begin the removal.

After you have cut the floor into sections, you will be getting into the hard work. From here you will be using your hammer and pry bar to remove the sections of flooring. It will take a couple of hits to get the pry bar wedged underneath the flooring, but the key here is to get the flooring to come up in small sections, not in splintered chunks. It is usually easiest if you can get the flooring from the tongue side of the plank. To locate the tongue side, go along the walls of the area and look for a row with full planks, typically this was the first row of flooring as the last row is typically cut to fit. The groove side of the plank is placed against the wall, so work from the opposite side of this wall and steadily take up flooring. After you have removed the flooring, you can move onto removing the adhesive.

When scraping, keep in mind that you should flip the blade on the scraper often in order to help keep the blade edge sharp. Blades will need to be replaced as they get dull over time and how long each blade lasts will be dependent on the adhesive used and how smooth your subfloor is. Assuming your subfloor was properly leveled before the flooring was installed it should be rather smooth and easier to work with when scraping. Scraping can be more or less difficult depending on the adhesive used (older adhesives from the 70s are a real pain) and removing the adhesive may call for use of special adhesive removal equipment, but this tends to be rare if the flooring is relatively new (within the last 5-7 years).

There are a few more solvents out there that you can use to soften up the adhesive. Several are made with a citric acid base (like the cleaners you see in stores labeled as "citrus"). There are a few others that are out there made from a soy base. The key is finding one formulated for the particular adhesive used to install your floor. With these solvents, you will need to allow them a bit of time to get into the adhesive and soften it back up, so keep this in mind when planning your removal process.

After you have removed the flooring and scraped the left over adhesive away, then you will want to check to ensure your concrete is level. If needed, level out the subfloor so that you will have a nice smooth surface to install the new floor over.

Q: A few years ago I had a vinyl floor installed by a professional. He put down a flake board underlayment over another vinyl floor, and then installed a glued down vinyl floor. Approximately one and a half years later little brown spots started appearing on the vinyl floor. The spots resemble cigarette burns. We went back to the store where we bought it and they told us they would supply the vinyl but would not do the labor ,because it was out of warranty. As it turns out ,the reason for the brown spots was exotic wood chips were put in the underlayment and the oils are bleeding through.

Well it appears I am stuck taking up the old floor, due to the height of the present floor. I watched the floor being put down and they did use a lot of staples. How in the world would you suggest pulling up this floor. I can picture something along the line of a heavy duty scraper with serrated teeth on the front of it. I would appreciate any advice you have.

Thanks,
Thomas Blessing

A: What you will need here is a circular saw (skill saw) and any kind of small lifter, such as a crow bar. You will want to set the saw's depth to the thickness of the vinyl and underlayment, which is usually around 3/8", then cut the floor into strips about 1' apart. Once the floor is cut into strips, you will then take your lifter and begin pulling up the strips of flooring and underlayment.

I am hesitant to believe that the brown spots you are seeing is due to exotic wood chips being in your flake board. Commonly these spots occur when regular steel staples are used rather than stainless or galvanized staples. Then once the adhesive is applied, especially with a latex based glue, its the perfect set up for a nightmare. I would suggest checking the location of these spots as you pull up the vinyl, if these spots occur over the staples, then you have found the problem. If these spots occur in areas where no staples are, than its possible the flake board is the problem, but I stress that this is not likely to be the scenario.

Q: I have a parquet floor over hard concrete. I would like to install cork underlayment and an engineered floating bamboo floor in its place. Some of the tiles are loose and in poor condition. The tiles themselves come up fairly easily, but the glue underneath them is another story. But the glue that was used is extremely thin as shown in the attached picture (the scrap wood spans both clean concrete and glue, the quarter is there for scale). My question is – do I really need to scrape all this glue up if it is thin like this? Cant I just lay the cork right over it?

Thanks!
Mike

Here is a photo Mike sent a long to give an idea of what he is working with and what he plans to install over.

A: With floating floors, especially those using premium underlayments, they can account for variances of subfloor height up to 1/16". This being said, as long as you remove a majority of the high spots so that the entire floor is relatively even, you can install over the top of the adhesive. Keep in mind you will still need to use a moisture barrier for your installation to ensure that there is no worry of having moisture vapor get into the flooring itself.

If you have a few areas where a portion of the parquet is not getting pulled up easily you can go in with a portable belt sander or similar grinder to grind down the area to a height similar to the rest of the floor. It is in your best interest to scrape up as much of the adhesive as possible, but not necessary to remove all of it, just ensure that higher spots or build ups are removed enough to be within about 1/16" of the height of the rest of the floor.

Q: I have Salito flooring and I would love to have hard wood flooring installed in the entire house. My question is do I need to remove this floor and if I do what is the best way to do it. The House is about 2000 square feet and the tile is all over ...please help me resolve this issue.

Thank you

A: You will want to remove all of the tile before installing any new wood flooring in your home. Let's do a quick step by step for how to remove tile:

The most important part of this will be determining if you want to save the tile or not. If you want to save the tile, you will need to use a rotary tool to cut the grout around the outside of the tile. Then, carefully use a pry bar to remove the tile. Depending on long the tile has been in place and how well it was installed can make this very difficult.

Now if you do NOT want to save the tile, this gets much easier. All you will need to do is break up the tile using a hammer. I would suggest placing a towel over the tile to prevent any chunks of tile from flying around as you break up the tile. Remove the tile in sections as you break it up.

Once all of the tile is removed, you will need to scrape the floor to remove adhesive/mortar. You could use a hand scraper, but honestly for the amount of tile in your home I would suggest renting a power scraper from a local home store. Typically these machines run about $50 to $75 for a day and they make the work a breeze compared to hand scraping. One thing I will note here is that these machines are very loud, so use some ear plugs.

After the subfloor has been scraped, its likely that you will have a few spots here any there that will need leveling because small amounts of the subfloor come up or get gouged into. So make sure you take time to level out your subfloor and get it clean before installing your floor.

From here, go ahead and install your floor. Assuming this is going over concrete you can either float the floor (make sure to use a moisture barrier and good underlayment) or glue the floor in place. If the floor is being glued, take extra caution during the leveling process to get your subfloor as flat and smooth as possible.

As a final note, when removing tile I would suggest wearing proper eye protection because some bits may fly around, also gloves and knee pads are a good idea. When scraping, a dust mask and ear plugs is also suggested.

Q: We have a small block home on a river in Michigan. The kitchen/ bedroom/bathroom were built on a concrete slab and the living room is over the walkout basement. We do not have air conditioning.

Thank you,
Valerie

A: The tar like substance you are running into is most likely an adhesive that is known as black cutback adhesive. The good news here is that there are several specially formulated citrus based solvents which will remove the cutback without any other treatments (though you will need to use a scraped to peel the cutback off). These solvents revert the adhesive back to a more liquid or paste like state.

Your best bet would be to remove the tiles, which you can pop off the floor with a 2" x 4" frame filled with a block of dry ice. 15 seconds over a tile then pop it with a hammer and it will come right up. Keep in mind dry ice is pure carbon dioxide so you MUST be working in a well vented area.

If you wish to leave the tiles in place, you will need to do a bit of fill work. First off determine how deep these gaps between tiles are, then fill with a combination of Portland cement based sack and patch followed by some self leveler to ensure the entire floor is nice and flat. Keep in mind you can only do this is all of the tiles are undamaged (save for something like scratches) and none of the tiles are loose.

Regardless of which route you take ensure you use a moisture barrier before installing your floor as this will be a great safe guard and it is required in the areas where you are installing over concrete.

Now to take care of that height difference I would suggest using a stair nosing as a lip, similar to what you would do with a sunk in living room, then resume flooring. For cork, this usually means using a clear grade natural maple nosing as they are the most neutral wood nosing you will be able to get. Then stain it to match color. Your other option here would be to use a painted nosing or a metal nosing (brushed aluminum for instance) which will give you a bit more of the modern commercial look.

Q: I am installing laminate flooring in my kitchen and living room. Under the current vinyl in the kitchen is a proboard sub-floor on top of one or two layers of vinyl composite tiles on top of the plywood floor. I want the floor in the living room and kitchen to be the same level as they join at a door way. What would be the best and easiest way to remove this floor? The house was built in 1973.

Thanks.

A: This will be a small project, but it is easily done with a bit of work. Before you get going, you will want to use some plastic sheeting and bag off the area where you will be working. Cover any furniture, cabinetry, electronics, etc. because this job will kick up quite a bit of dust and clean up afterward will be a real pain if you don't cover up furniture - this includes covering the top of counters. Make things easy on yourself and bag up door ways as well so dust can't float out of the rooms to hallways and other rooms in your home - just tape some of the plastic to the walls and you will be fine. Also, make sure you wear dust masks and eye protection. I would suggest getting a cartridge based mask (respirator) which you should be able to pick up locally or from somewhere like Harbor Freight for about $25. Beyond this you will need a skill saw or circular saw, a pencil and proper materials to lay a few chalk lines.

First, find an area with a heater vent or similar area to where you can determine how far down your subfloor is. Set your saw to cut just a hair over the thickness of your floor through the composition tile so you will be removing all of your old flooring and installing over the subfloor.

Now, lay chalk lines about 12-16" apart along the entire area of your flooring. Then lay one more chalk line in the opposite direction (perpendicular) along the center of the room. Once your lines are laid out, cut along them so that your flooring has been cut into sections. From here you will want to take a three foot long crow bar and begin prying up the sections of flooring. Work from the center point toward the walls (which is why we laid that one cut directly in the center of your floor). This will be a bit of work, wiggling and prying up the floor, but it will come up in sections, exposing the subfloor.

Once you have removed all of the flooring make sure you clean any debris or adhesive residues. Once you have a clean subfloor, take some drywall screws and screw down the subfloor to eliminate any potential noise that could occur from walking over the floor.

This should leave you with a well prepared subfloor ready for installation of your new laminate floor. It is a bit of work, but in the end it will pay off to remove all of the old flooring.

Q: We just recently purchased a 50' yacht and we want to remove all the carpet from its floor. I am not sure what type of flooring is underneath whether It is parquet or teak flooring. What tool(s) would you recommend for us to use to do such a deed? Thank you for your response.

Lorraine and Chuck

A: More than likely the carpet you have is glued down over teak, as this is a very common install method and wood flooring choice in yachts. Typically to remove a glue down carpet, you will take a razor blade, cut the carpet into strips about 12-14" wide whilst slowly ripping up the carpet. You should be able to rip the carpet up by hand as long as you cut it into strips. If you are having any trouble with removing some of the carpet, try using a floor scrapper to lightly pry the carpet away from the cured adhesive.

Once the carpet is removed, you will want to use a solvent, typically citrus based ones are your best bet, to restore the adhesive to a paste-like consistency. Once it is paste-like, you should be able to scoop it up by lightly using a floor scraper. You will need to let the solvent sit for a bit to break down the adhesive, so pay attention to the instructions for the solvent.

From here you will need to sand down the wood floor to smooth out and remove any marks or gouges from the scraping, then refinish the floor. Remember, before applying the first coat of stain or finish, sand the floor using 220 grit sand paper to prep it. Between each coat of finish, buff the floor with the 220 grit paper again to ensure proper adhesion between coats of finish.

In the end here, you will need a razor blade or carpet knife, floor scraper, adhesive solvent and a floor sander to get the carpet removed and the wood floor prepared for finishing.

Q: I'm looking at using some of the floating laminate products and wondered if the 30 yr old vinyl should be removed? It's got some cuts and scrapes, and only in the areas around a few of the cabinet edges are there any slight tears/buckling; in fairly good shape for 30 years i suppose...very grimy though! We are not sure about how to prep floors

Thanks for any info,
S. Schwarzenbach

A: Two very important questions when looking into a floating floor, let's first dig in to prep for your floor.

Depending on the condition of the vinyl will matter if it must be removed or not. In your case, since there is some cracking and perhaps a spot or two where it is coming up, I would suggest pulling the vinyl up. Although it has stood the test of time rather well, 30 years is quite the war record, I would still remove it to ensure that no future problem telegraph through and mess with your new laminate floor.

Most installers will suggest with any floor that you should install directly over the subfloor, with no flooring between. This is definitely advisable, and a good general rule as it can help you to identify problems in the subfloor and fix them before they become problems down the road. Make sure that your subfloor is level before installing, this could mean doing a bit of leveling work to flatten it out, but it is well worth it in the long run. As a guess, if there are so few issues with your Vinyl, your subfloor should be in pretty good shape as well.

Now let's move onto your concerns with the piano. It is a good rule to avoid putting any heavy furniture over a floating floor at the edge of the floor. In some cases heavy furniture will work well toward the center of a floating floor, assuming you use a good underlayment, but going toward the edge of the floor is asking for disaster.

I have seen floating cork floors which served well in game rooms with a pool table in the center - so yes, you can have heavy stuff on a floating floor, but as I said, it needs to be toward the middle and the key to success is the underlayment. The secret here is density, very dense underlayment, typically cork, helps to ensure that the floor can better support the weight of heavier furniture and thus, will work under something like a pool table or grand piano.

If the piano you have is better suited against the wall, then I would suggest using either a small section of tile in the room, or build a small platform of the laminate that is not connect to the rest of the floor, so that it coordinates, but will not cause potential buckling.

Q: I had Bruce hardwood floors installed in my retirement home. Weeks later, holes and cracks and everything else started happening to my floor. Called in licensed floor inspector that says it must come up, poor quality and poor installation. Since I can't afford to have this taken up and more wood put down, could I use another type floor (like the floating floor) on top of this just to make it look better and if so, would that last a while? Thanks.

A: If your floor is in as bad a shape as your are describing you should not install anything over this floor and expect it to succeed. This type of damage makes a completely unsuitable substrate for a floor.

Based on your inspector's report, you should pursue your installer and have him remove and replace the floor. This is due to installer fault, which means the warranty would also be voided. The installer should, at the very least, remove the floor and prepare your subfloor for new flooring; however, the installer should also replace the flooring, because its condition is due to installer error according to the inspector.

Q: I have recently started to renovate a house. I took the carpet up and found the floor had been self leveled. Some of the self leveler had come off and there are some nice red tiles underneath. Can you tell me how to remove the self leveler please?

Thanks
Adreiene

A: This is a fairly tricky situation. Typically when self-leveler is applied properly one of two things will occur. Either a latex based primer will be used and/or the tile surface is scored in order to help ensure the leveler will adhere properly. Since the portion you have found flaked up, it is likely that neither of these two were done, but its not likely that all of the tile remains in good shape. The acids in the Portland cement based used for self-leveling compounds will typically scored the surface of the tile, leaving a patchwork appearance or spotty appearance over the surface of the tile.

You can test this by taking a sledge hammer and dropping it, don't swing just let the weight of the hammer do the work, from about a foot off the ground, then see how far the cracking itself goes. Do this in a few spots over a three foot area. If the cracking does not go through the tile and the leveler can be removed, then you could try this technique to break up and remove the leveler, but it is rather likely that you will see some discoloration to the tile from the leveling compound.