You can see the full written tutorial for how to remove glued wood floors and how to remove adhesive on concrete in this blog post: www.abbottsathome.com/remove-glued-wood-flooring-concrete/
You were very lucky! Who ever installed the hardwood did an extremely horrible job which made it come up very easily. It isn’t very often a floor comes up that easy they have to do bad prep throughout and bad installation.
I wish mine was like her floor right about now it keeps chipping and not coming up as one peice and its killing me this is some tedious annoying shit. You have any tips.
This is very helpful. Thanks. I am about halfway through removing my (very well stuck) floor. Let me offer two innovations. 1) If you have an ice chopper for your sidewalk, put an edge on it with a grinder. It gives you a five foot long, five pound chisel to go at the stuck bits while standing up. 2). The really stubborn bits (and the dried adhesive) can be quickly smoothed with an electric hand planer.
@@AbbottsAtHome No. Planer blades are all clear. My adhesive was dry and pretty brittle. It might have been different had the adhesive been more gummy or rubbery.
Great video. I've just had to do the same myself (for the same reason, swelling at the edges - we take about 30cm from the edge out and lay a tile border) and what I found was really good for getting up the glue and stuck down wood chips is a garden spade (with a straight bottom edge). It lets you do it standing up, and also you can use your foot for a bit of extra power
I do this professionally I love that yellow glue it’s the easiest for removing wood floor Use a big 36 inch pry bar you can rip out huge half room sized sections
Thanks for the tip! Certain parts of this floor popped up that easily. But other parts (in the video) just refused to let go of the floor. My best guess is that it easily popped off the original concrete subfloor, but was a lot harder to get off of a floor leveler that was poured.
Good job! I've been trying to remove a laminate floor for the past 2 days and god it was exhausting, I used a hammer and a flat screwdriver and tried to remove the boards like you did, I've been sitting during the whole process and now I feel devastated ahaha, anyway thanks for the video I'll definetely approach it the way you did!
I had Armstrong LVT glued down 9 years ago. We are replacing everything with floating vinyl planks. The removal for the LVT was the same as you are showing. A miserable job for flooring professionals. About 2 1/2 hours for 125 ft. Sharp chips flew everywhere. After removing, they applied a skim coat. I asked why. They explained the old glue could be activated by walking on the planks, and cause problems. This old line family store offers and honors a lifetime warranty on anything they install. Not the usual once year warranty. They have to do it right.
Hi! It is back breaking getting that adhesive off. I ended up using adhesive remover to completely remove all adhesive because I was installing tile. And, I didn’t trust thinset to stick to old adhesive in the long run. But, your comment explains a lot. At some point someone skim coated these floors over adhesive too. That must be why. Thanks for the comment. 😊
The glue did it’s job ! the underlayment/ self leveler didn’t stick to the slab which is why the planks came up so easy .the áreas where she needed to scrape off glue probably were directly glued to the slab, this job is never easy no matter the circumstance
Thanks for the video. I have been looking for a video like yours for several years. I have to remove my glued down engineered wood floors before I sell and replace with carpet. The problem is I don't want to create a lot of noise for the neighbors while removing them (upstairs condo), and I have cats so I can't have splinters during the process. I won't be able to do it all in one day. I can tell that these wood floors are so dried out that they are bound to splinter and come up in many layers which will make for a terrible walking surface for my kitties. I plan to do one 4 by 4 section at a time. I sure hope the installers did a horrible job gluing it down. LOL. My other concern is the type of concrete it was glued to. I think upstairs floors use some type of gypsum? I think it will also come up in chunks along with the glue because it's softer than true concrete.
It sounds like you probably have cement board or gypsum board between the engineered flooring and the subfloor. So, the installers glued the flooring down to that cement, but that cement or gypsum is probably screwed down to the subfloor. So, it will be a bit more complicated. Good luck. I understand about the kitty. 😊
Great video! The previous folks who lived in my house applied sticky vinyl flooring to the top of hard wood floors. I’m beside myself. As a solution, I purchased the MEK substitute as an adhesive stripper bc the leftover residue is a pain. Is this similar to the adhesive stripper you use in the end of your video (and blog).
Thanks! I've never used MEK or MEK Substitute. It looks like a pretty strong chemical. I'd make sure that it won't ruin your wood floors. For that sticky, tacky adhesive on peel and stick tiles, I'd try Murphy's Oil Soap or Orange Oil first. Use it with a Heavy Duty Stripping pad. I kind of think that combo would work really well. It will be a great arm workout though. :)
Ug I’m having to do this on the risers and treads of stairs in my house. So genius thought this would look good, it doesn’t. And they added those ugly brass edge plates bc they didn’t know how to finish the edges otherwise. They are not coming up even this easily. I’m using the same method only in a lot of areas I have to use a scraper to start pulling up before I can even get my prybar under.
Guys, I used a digging bar that had a tapered edge tobhet slightly under. That and the weight the digging bar had would knock the whole board off. I was doing what she was and it was half as productive. Other then thay guys for tough adhesive, get a hammer drill and buy a chisel attachment from harbor freight. Dont rent it, its the same price.
I definitely would have looked at renting that for a larger area. It's been a while since I've looked at one, but it seems like those machines are really heavy and hard to transport? Am I remembering that right?
It’s Klean Strip Flooring Adhesive Remover. You can see the written version of this video here: www.abbottsathome.com/remove-glued-wood-flooring-concrete/#h-flooring-adhesive-stripper Good luck!
I thought removed glued laminate would be a nightmare, yet every contractor I asked for quotes for a flooring install on stairs stated you "have to" glue flooring on stairs. I know laminate/plank has a life of about 10 years, so then what? I don't want to destroy the wood subfloor to remove flooring on stairs, but I think alot of the subfloor will be damaged by the removal. When I asked if nailing was feasible I was told by 3 contractors no. There has got to be a better way to do flooring. Every instructional video also shows gluing flooring.
They're probably right about gluing the flooring down. I have wood stairs, but they don't have visible nails in them. You shouldn't have to remove glue there later. I had to so that I could tile the floor.
I have been in construction my entire working career, self employed for 90% of that time, and I’m about 10 years from retirement. Trust me when I tell you, that floor was a VERY POOR EXAMPLE, of what you will encounter when removing a properly applied urethane adhesive bonded engineered wood floor from a concrete substrate. A hammer and a flat bar !? My gut hurts from laughing. We use 70 pound breakers with 6” chisels, saw kerf through floor at 6” intervals, and that makes it …ALMOST PRODUCTIVE.
No, any plank replacement is a task for a pro. You'll need the same flooring but new planks and there is a process due to the tongue and groove of the floor. I'm a professional and it's not the easiest of jobs
I was lucky enough to have carpet outside this room. So, it was an easy place to start. If you don’t have a good starting point on the outside edges, you can cut a square with a circular saw. Just be sure to set the blade depth shallow enough that you don’t hit the concrete pad or subfloor under it. 👍
You did not have any glue on your floor. Very poor job of installing your old floor. I used a 35lb. jack hammer and it was all it could handle with the glue job that was done.
If I knew you personally, I would HUG YOU.... 🤗🫂 "Thank You" for sharing this. Although it'll take "dedicated time, and a lot of elbow grease" you cannot imagine how much money you saved me 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 "Thank You" again signed a new dedicated follower.
You can see the full written tutorial for how to remove glued wood floors and how to remove adhesive on concrete in this blog post: www.abbottsathome.com/remove-glued-wood-flooring-concrete/
You were very lucky! Who ever installed the hardwood did an extremely horrible job which made it come up very easily. It isn’t very often a floor comes up that easy they have to do bad prep throughout and bad installation.
I wish mine was like her floor right about now it keeps chipping and not coming up as one peice and its killing me this is some tedious annoying shit. You have any tips.
Not necessarily, it looks like it the glue might be alcohol based .. I’ve worked with this type of glue before, it’s not the best
yea this got my hopes up, mine is no where near this easy
Exactly hers is coming up super easy I have a floor that’s glued ultra thick it only comes up in little chip pieces
LITERALLY EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING. I was unlucky bc the house I'm at was done amazing. We need to rent a machine
This is very helpful. Thanks. I am about halfway through removing my (very well stuck) floor. Let me offer two innovations. 1) If you have an ice chopper for your sidewalk, put an edge on it with a grinder. It gives you a five foot long, five pound chisel to go at the stuck bits while standing up. 2). The really stubborn bits (and the dried adhesive) can be quickly smoothed with an electric hand planer.
Thanks for the tips! Did the old glue gum up your hand planer blade?
@@AbbottsAtHome No. Planer blades are all clear. My adhesive was dry and pretty brittle. It might have been different had the adhesive been more gummy or rubbery.
Great video. I've just had to do the same myself (for the same reason, swelling at the edges - we take about 30cm from the edge out and lay a tile border) and what I found was really good for getting up the glue and stuck down wood chips is a garden spade (with a straight bottom edge). It lets you do it standing up, and also you can use your foot for a bit of extra power
Good ideas! Thanks for sharing
I do this professionally
I love that yellow glue it’s the easiest for removing wood floor
Use a big 36 inch pry bar you can rip out huge half room sized sections
Thanks for the tip! Certain parts of this floor popped up that easily. But other parts (in the video) just refused to let go of the floor. My best guess is that it easily popped off the original concrete subfloor, but was a lot harder to get off of a floor leveler that was poured.
Jonathan, what’s your tip for removing the glue the best/easiest way?
Good job! I've been trying to remove a laminate floor for the past 2 days and god it was exhausting, I used a hammer and a flat screwdriver and tried to remove the boards like you did, I've been sitting during the whole process and now I feel devastated ahaha, anyway thanks for the video I'll definetely approach it the way you did!
It is a bear of a job! Try to get that chisel with a hand guard, if possible. It’s a hand saver! Good luck. 👍
I had Armstrong LVT glued down 9 years ago. We are replacing everything with floating vinyl planks. The removal for the LVT was the same as you are showing. A miserable job for flooring professionals. About 2 1/2 hours for 125 ft. Sharp chips flew everywhere. After removing, they applied a skim coat. I asked why. They explained the old glue could be activated by walking on the planks, and cause problems. This old line family store offers and honors a lifetime warranty on anything they install. Not the usual once year warranty. They have to do it right.
Hi! It is back breaking getting that adhesive off. I ended up using adhesive remover to completely remove all adhesive because I was installing tile. And, I didn’t trust thinset to stick to old adhesive in the long run. But, your comment explains a lot. At some point someone skim coated these floors over adhesive too. That must be why. Thanks for the comment. 😊
125 ft an hour ?? Ha!! Try glued down engineered with urethane based glue. Your lucky ti get 100 ft in 4hrs
The glue did it’s job ! the underlayment/ self leveler didn’t stick to the slab which is why the planks came up so easy .the áreas where she needed to scrape off glue probably were directly glued to the slab, this job is never easy no matter the circumstance
Thanks for the video. I have been looking for a video like yours for several years. I have to remove my glued down engineered wood floors before I sell and replace with carpet. The problem is I don't want to create a lot of noise for the neighbors while removing them (upstairs condo), and I have cats so I can't have splinters during the process. I won't be able to do it all in one day. I can tell that these wood floors are so dried out that they are bound to splinter and come up in many layers which will make for a terrible walking surface for my kitties. I plan to do one 4 by 4 section at a time. I sure hope the installers did a horrible job gluing it down. LOL. My other concern is the type of concrete it was glued to. I think upstairs floors use some type of gypsum? I think it will also come up in chunks along with the glue because it's softer than true concrete.
It sounds like you probably have cement board or gypsum board between the engineered flooring and the subfloor. So, the installers glued the flooring down to that cement, but that cement or gypsum is probably screwed down to the subfloor. So, it will be a bit more complicated. Good luck. I understand about the kitty. 😊
Wish I had your energy. Thanks for your video
Thanks, Jo! I’m not sure if it’s energy. More like an inability to just sit down and relax. 😊
Wish the floor I was removing came up that easy
Great video! The previous folks who lived in my house applied sticky vinyl flooring to the top of hard wood floors. I’m beside myself. As a solution, I purchased the MEK substitute as an adhesive stripper bc the leftover residue is a pain. Is this similar to the adhesive stripper you use in the end of your video (and blog).
Thanks! I've never used MEK or MEK Substitute. It looks like a pretty strong chemical. I'd make sure that it won't ruin your wood floors. For that sticky, tacky adhesive on peel and stick tiles, I'd try Murphy's Oil Soap or Orange Oil first. Use it with a Heavy Duty Stripping pad. I kind of think that combo would work really well. It will be a great arm workout though. :)
Thank you for your good tips. I have to remove two rooms. Ouch!
Good luck. :)
Ug I’m having to do this on the risers and treads of stairs in my house. So genius thought this would look good, it doesn’t. And they added those ugly brass edge plates bc they didn’t know how to finish the edges otherwise. They are not coming up even this easily. I’m using the same method only in a lot of areas I have to use a scraper to start pulling up before I can even get my prybar under.
Yikes! Good luck Ginger. :)
Guys, I used a digging bar that had a tapered edge tobhet slightly under. That and the weight the digging bar had would knock the whole board off. I was doing what she was and it was half as productive. Other then thay guys for tough adhesive, get a hammer drill and buy a chisel attachment from harbor freight. Dont rent it, its the same price.
Thanks for sharing!
Do you need to use a roller as a final step on installing glue down wood over concrete?
Wow So if on a wood subfloor is it easier to just remove subfloor, witj old wood tiles still attached?
Thanks that was very helpful..!!
Thank you!!
HD rental dept has a machine that will greatly reduce time and back ache on the glued floor removal
I definitely would have looked at renting that for a larger area. It's been a while since I've looked at one, but it seems like those machines are really heavy and hard to transport? Am I remembering that right?
@@AbbottsAtHome they're not too bad to move as long as you have a truck. To me, it was definitely worth it vs. the bending over all day.
A chipping hammer helps quite a bit too
Thanks for the tip!
What is the last step, the white solution? Thanks
It’s Klean Strip Flooring Adhesive Remover. You can see the written version of this video here: www.abbottsathome.com/remove-glued-wood-flooring-concrete/#h-flooring-adhesive-stripper
Good luck!
I thought removed glued laminate would be a nightmare, yet every contractor I asked for quotes for a flooring install on stairs stated you "have to" glue flooring on stairs. I know laminate/plank has a life of about 10 years, so then what? I don't want to destroy the wood subfloor to remove flooring on stairs, but I think alot of the subfloor will be damaged by the removal. When I asked if nailing was feasible I was told by 3 contractors no. There has got to be a better way to do flooring. Every instructional video also shows gluing flooring.
They're probably right about gluing the flooring down. I have wood stairs, but they don't have visible nails in them. You shouldn't have to remove glue there later. I had to so that I could tile the floor.
I don’t think this is the most effective and efficient way of doing it. Mine is not coming of and there is plenty of glue
Can this kind of floor be repaired or does it all have to be ripped out and get a whole new floor? Thank you
It all has to be ripped put.
How much do you charge in hour .. so i can hire u when i need some help?
💪🙏
Hahaha. Maybe when it wasn’t installed properly or they didn’t use the right type of glue.
I have been in construction my entire working career, self employed for 90% of that time, and I’m about 10 years from retirement. Trust me when I tell you, that floor was a VERY POOR EXAMPLE, of what you will encounter when removing a properly applied urethane adhesive bonded engineered wood floor from a concrete substrate. A hammer and a flat bar !?
My gut hurts from laughing. We use 70 pound breakers with 6” chisels, saw kerf through floor at 6” intervals, and that makes it …ALMOST PRODUCTIVE.
What you said GI Joe.
Is there a way to remove it without damaging it? I would like to remove a section and put it back
No, any plank replacement is a task for a pro. You'll need the same flooring but new planks and there is a process due to the tongue and groove of the floor. I'm a professional and it's not the easiest of jobs
I have done this. It is very very very painful process. Not like the one in this video.
That didn’t have a urethane based glue
Anyone tried a heat gun?
I deff needed a chipping gun cause they glued the F out my floors
Me too, man. Good luck!!
why not show how you remove the first board which is the hardest
I was lucky enough to have carpet outside this room. So, it was an easy place to start. If you don’t have a good starting point on the outside edges, you can cut a square with a circular saw. Just be sure to set the blade depth shallow enough that you don’t hit the concrete pad or subfloor under it. 👍
The person who did the floor before u took it off did an terrible job gluing it down lol
Yep! 🤨🙏
Ours is not this easy .
You did not have any glue on your floor. Very poor job of installing your old floor. I used a 35lb. jack hammer and it was all it could handle with the glue job that was done.
If I knew you personally, I would HUG YOU.... 🤗🫂 "Thank You" for sharing this.
Although it'll take "dedicated time, and a lot of elbow grease" you cannot imagine how much money you saved me
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
"Thank You" again signed a new dedicated follower.
I’m so happy to help!!