[Shop-talk] Removing sheet vinyl flooring

[Jim Franklin]

On Jul 3, 2008, at 10:02 AM, Drew Rogge wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Is there any trick to removing sheet vinyl flooring? We're  
> replacing 30 year
> old flooring in the kitchen and the scraper just seems to split the  
> flooring
> in two leaving the a paper backing or something like that. Does  
> anyone know of
> a good way to remove this stuff. FWIW, the flooring is laid on top  
> of some sort
> of fiberboard. I really don't want to leave the old flooring.
>

If it's older than the 80s, get it tested for asbestos if you're  
concerned about such things. You'll need 3 tests- the top layer,  
bottom layer, and the adhesive.

Sometimes heat from a heat gun will soften the adhesive. My adhesive  
was water soluble but I first had to get to it by scraping off the  
top layer.

If I had to do it all over again, I would just cut down to the joists  
and remove the entire subfloor. Much much faster, and could be much  
cheaper depending on what your time is worth. Remember you will  
likely need to patch the scrape marks in the existing subfloor, or  
put down luan etc to level it out.

jim