iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Wood floors under linoleum

Started by sandhills, January 02, 2013, 11:17:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

sandhills

Hey folks I'm just wondering what everyone else has done to get old linoleum off nice wood floors for refinishing.  My main problem right now is the length of the floor boards in the kitchen, it is actually more of a hallway, they're maybe 4' long with cupboards, sink, refridge, etc. along both sides, I'm having a hard time getting anything started under the linoleum without gouging into the floor, out of two rooms I'm going to (try) to refinish they are both small but the biggest luckily was carpeted and it came up real easy and should sand down nice enough.  So far I tried a few methods, mainly a little wonder bar (which gave the best results, with a lot of elbow grease and a very sore palm) and a scraper on a sawzall, which works well but gouges really easy in tight spots, as well as complete operator stupidity  ::).  I'm thinking after tonight I ought to stick with the little wonder bar.   

metalspinner

I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

trim4u2nv

Working in the landlord business, we used wallpaper steamers to soften the glue along with an array of scrapers.  About $50 dollars at the big box store.

caveman

A 4" scraper, cut a length of emt conduit that will allow you to work standing up and keep a sharp blade in it and you will be on your way.  A very sharp flat bladed trenching shovel will also work.  You may take an iron over a piece of cloth over the area just prior to scraping.  Good luck.
Caveman

sandhills

Thanks guys, I never thought of heating it, it's been there for as long as I can remember, let's say 34 years??  Trouble with the scrapers is there just isn't enough room to run "with the boards", and to get it started I'm beneath over hanging cupboards by maybe 2" most of the time, I'll try a little heat tomorrow and see what that does, so far trying to get it started a foot or so out tears stuff up pretty good by the time you get through the linoleum, other wise I have to go across the boards, not good even by hand and being careful  ::)

Axe Handle Hound

I'd also recommend heating it a bit.  Usually the glue will soften right up and you can peel it nice and easy. 

If it's older than you can remember there might be asbestos in it.  Be careful about stirring up dust and maybe keep a spray bottle handy to wet down any potential problem areas.  If you don't have any issues with one, get a respirator and some asbestos cartridges to go with it.

jueston

i think using a razor blade and scoring it will help with getting started, in the middle where its easier to work when work towards the edges from there. heat is what i would recomend too, almost all adhesives get softer with a little heat.

in a house i was working on recently there was some cheap tile in the kitchen and i wanted to remove it and put in hardwood to match the rest of the house, after i broke up some tile i couldn't get the cementboard up, i discovered it had been glued, screwed, and nailed to plywood, which was glued screwed and nailed to the original hardwood.... after getting about 1 square foot down to the orginial hardwood i figured out i would spend the rest of my life trying to get back to hardwood, and when i did it would be destroyed anyways... so i just ripped up all 4 layers at once, tile, cement board, plywood, and hardwood, and then started over laying new plywood on the subfloor.... i swear that house was cursed.

but interesting thing when i got to the subfloor, a lot of the pine boards used for the subfloor were more then 20 inches wide, it was random width so there were some small ones too, but lots of really wide ones....

Thank You Sponsors!