I have hardwood floors that have been covered with linoleum. How can I remove the linoleum without damaging the wood underneath? Glued down linoleum and vinyl flooring can be removed from a wood floor without causing too much damage to the wood, if you’re prepared for a fair investment of time and elbow grease. Here’s how to go about it. If the floor has been around for a number of years, you should purchase an asbestos test kit first, since asbestos was an ingredient in some adhesives used to install linoleum. If the test is negative for asbestos, you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Remove Linoleum or Vinyl Flooring Start by pulling up as much of the linoleum or vinyl flooring as you can. Since it’s easier to work with smaller strips, it helps if you score the linoleum or vinyl with a razor knife into 12” wide strips. A helper can speed the process by using a floor scraper to pry under the linoleum strips while you’re pulling on them.

Once all the linoleum has been removed, it’s time to work on getting up the adhesive.Auto Repair Ticket Software There are chemical adhesive solvents on the market, but my concern is that they would soak into the hardwood. Tire And Wheels San DiegoI would try working on small areas at a time by pouring boiling water on the adhesive and letting it sit for about ten minutes.Best Cat Food Pouches Uk Once the adhesive is loose, use a floor scraper to remove as much of it as you can. Sand and Refinish Wood Floor After the adhesive has been removed, allow ample time for the floor to dry. Once the floor is completely dry, rent a floor sander and edger to sand the floor smooth and remove any traces of adhesive. Finally, vacuum up all the dust, wipe the floor down, and finish with several coats of polyurethane.

Good luck with your project, How to Remove Glue and Adhesive from Floors (video) How to Remove Adhesives and Caulking Fast (video) Tools for Sanding Wood Floors (video) How to Refinish Wood Floors (video/article) How to Clean Tile with Muriatic Acid Recovering from a Hurricane or Other Natural Disaster Kitchen Remodeling Tips for Your HomeFlooring & Stairs > How To: Remove Vinyl Flooring Have you had it with that dated, dirty, and dilapidated vinyl floor? Here's how to remove it, so you never have to look at it again. Let’s be clear: It’s no fun to remove vinyl flooring. Peeling up the material itself is no picnic, but the real trial is to get rid of the glue that had been securing the vinyl to the subfloor. The only silver lining here is that while tedious and time-consuming, it’s certainly not complicated to remove vinyl flooring. No special tools or advanced skills are required. It’s really only a matter of elbow grease. Follow the steps below to get the job done with a minimum of frustration.

The first step is to take all furniture out of the room so you can have unimpeded access to the floor. You’ll also need to carefully remove all baseboards and any other trim that meets the floor. Next, locate a section of the floor with no glue underneath. Start here, using a utility knife to cut the vinyl flooring into 12-inch strips. Pull up each one gently. Where you encounter resistance from the glue, use a scraper tool (or even a kitchen spatula) to get the strip loose. In places where the glue is especially tenacious, you can use a hammer-and-chisel combination to chip at the hardened adhesive. If you’re stuck with an area where the vinyl has been removed but the glue remains lodged on the subfloor, try this: Combine warm water and soap in a bucket, then apply it liberally to the glue, allowing time for the mixture to soak in. When you return, the glue will have softened and become easier to remove.OK, it’s time to bring some heat into the equation. Buy or rent a heat gun—or in a pinch, use your hair dryer—and hold it directly over the stubborn adhesive long enough to soften the glue (but not long enough to cause any damage to the subfloor).

Then go at the glue with your trusty scraper. Finish with some cleanup: Use a broom or shop vac to pick up all the debris that now litters the room. If the above seems like way too much work, there’s always the option of renting a power scraper from your local home center. There’s a cost attached to bringing in such a tool, but it will certainly make much quicker work of things. If you opt for the power scraper, be sure to test it first in an inconspicuous area; you will need to adjust its angle so that it removes only the vinyl-and-glue layer, not the underlying subfloor. Score the vinyl into 10-inch sections with the utility knife, then turn on the scraper and get busy. Until the mid-1980s, asbestos often served as an ingredient in vinyl flooring products. If you know that the installation you’re dealing with has been around that long—or if you’re not certain how long the vinyl floor has been there—it’s only common sense to have the material tested before proceeding.

I believe in hiring pros when it’s appropriate, and in the case of asbestos-laced vinyl flooring, it’s eminently appropriate to pay people who know what they are doing.TrafficMaster Allure Vinyl Flooring Revisiting this ever-popular post about Home Depot's Trafficmaster Allure vinyl flooring, we noticed a Home Depot employee left extensive additional comments and details about the product, so we thought we'd repost this with updated information for the many visitors who come to this particular post specifically for TrafficMaster Allure information. Have you ever wanted wood floors in your bathroom but thought otherwise because of concern about moisture? We've been reading up about Home Depot's exclusive TrafficMaster Allure flexible vinyl planks and think they might be worth investigating if you're looking for a waterproof flooring solution. TrafficMaster Allure vinyl planks are completely waterproof, come with a 25 year warranty, are available in a multitude of colours and wood types (complete with texture) to match the decor of your home, and install with a pre-ready adhesive interlocking system which they call GripStrip.

More details after the jump.*originally posted March 8, 2007 According to comments below, many seem pleased with the results, finish and appearance of these flooring planks (when properly installed), thanks to their flexibility in feel and application. The vinyl planks stick to one other with pre-applied adhesive on the edges, without a need for any additional glue, and the only recommended tool for installation is a razor knife. At $1.99 per sq. foot, the Allure vinyl planks sound like an ideal novice flooring renovation project in the making with their score and snap installation, with a box covering 24 square feet. A Home Depot employee recently chimed in about sample availability and installation issues: I work at the Home Depot in Peru, IL. and I was browsing on the Home Depot website doing research about the Trafficmaster Allure product myself, since so many customers were asking about other styles available-and all of a sudden i saw all of these different styles available on the site!

So I called out to Halstead (the actual manufacturer of the Allure line), New England, got a hold of one our reps, Cate French, and asked her if it would be possible to get samples in case customers wanted material samples, and she said "yes", but the sample boards were on backorder (due to the popularity of the product). But she would put our store on the list, and in the meantime, she would cut up pieces of the planks and send them with little labels for customers to at least see a piece of the planks. So I was so happy to get those little squares from her, and we had a lot of customers come in and look at them. However, we didn't get our first big sales on the stuff until we recieved our large sample boards, with a lot larger version of the planks on them. So far, we have done about 4 large orders for the s/o in our store. And I'm sure a lot more. Granted, this stuff is what it is, don't expect miracles, but the best thing about it for us, is that its the only TRULY waterproof floor in the entire store.

People love it also because anybody can lay it down, as long as you follow a few simple directions(such as leaving an expansion gap around the perimeter; letting the vinyl acclimate to the humidity and temps of the room you will be installing in; rolling the entire floor out with at least a 100lb roller; making sure to get the seams as tight as possible; making sure that you install it in a room that has heat vents so that it doesn't start to buckle-unless of course you like that look). The reason that it is waterproof is because the "grip strip" of adhesive on the sides of each plank interlock, and when the are rolled out, and firmly pressed together, if water or any liquid happens to spills directly over the seam, there is literally no where for the liquid to go. It just beads up on top of that overlap. I also recieved this really helpful book in the mail from the company on Allure, and it has helpful hints for install, care and maintenence, and all kinds of things you can't find on the web.

Halstead also make a more commercial and more expensive line of resilient flooring called Metro Floor. They make planks and tiles and all that, but they all have to be glued down, just like the Armstrong planks, Amtico planks, Roppe planks, etc. This idea has been around for a long time, but Halstead has made a durable floor for most normal residentials floors that is guaranteed to not delaminate or wear through the top layer for 25 years. I think people misunderstand warranties on flooring a lot. When they say 25 year wear, that doesn't mean it WILL NOT scratch. It will just hold up a lot better as far as denting and gouging, compared to your traditional sheet vinyl and vinyl self adhesive squares. People need to remember to keep an eye on their animal's nails, make sure they are clipped correctly, to the right spot on their nails, and at the right angle, to prevent them from putting scratches in any hard surface material they walk on. I just had to let everybody know that there are other options for trafficmaster, just go to your local Home Depot and let them know they can call Cate French or they can call Halstead (the manufacturer of this product).