Looking for answers on how to remove vinyl flooring? You’ve come to the right place. There are lots of answers on how to remove vinyl flooring below. It might seem like there are more answers than you think. This is true. There are so many answers because there are so many ways to remove vinyl flooring.
Vinyl flooring looks great when first installed but eventually, it begins to wear down. Dated, worn, or torn vinyl flooring cannot easily or effectively be repaired. Often the best way to deal with an issue is to replace it with another floor covering. In many cases, it is easiest to leave the vinyl flooring in place and install the new floor right on top of it. As long as the vinyl flooring is in good structural condition, it can accept laminate, some wood flooring, carpet, and some other types of vinyl.
However, many homeowners prefer to remove their vinyl flooring altogether. Layering and height considerations may factor into this decision, or you may simply want to install your new flooring on a completely fresh slate. In either case, removal is the only option. Featured Video 7 Things You Should Know About Vinyl and Laminate Flooring
Liquid chemical-based adhesive removers such as Klean-Strip can help with vinyl flooring removal, but they come with their own set of problems such as a strong odor, mess, and safety concerns. In addition, liquid strippers often do not work as well as promised. The dry, chemical-free method described here requires patience and determination, coupled with the right tools and an understanding of how vinyl flooring is installed in the first place.
Table of Contents
Safety Considerations
A heat gun is an invaluable tool to have in your arsenal when removing vinyl flooring, but it can be dangerous. Holding a heat gun too close to flammable materials can ignite them. Be very careful about keeping the heat gun far enough away from the work materials, and be sure to wear gloves.
What You’ll Need
Equipment / Tools
- Flat pry bar
- Mallet or hammer
- 5-in-1 tool
- Utility knife
- Heat gun
Materials
- Wood block
- Work gloves
Instructions
- Remove the Quarter-Round Trim If quarter-round trim has been installed in front of the baseboards as a way of covering the gap between the baseboards and the flooring, this must be removed before you can start on the vinyl flooring. Gently pry off the quarter-round with the flat end of the pry bar.
- Remove the Baseboard Trim In some instances, the vinyl flooring may be installed just up to the edge of the baseboards, beneath the quarter-round molding. However, it’s more common for the baseboards to be installed over the top of the flooring. If that’s the case in your home, you’ll need to remove the baseboards completely in order to remove the old flooring. To start, place a wood block against the wall a few inches above the baseboard. Put the flat end of the pry bar on top of where the trim and wall meet. A swift rap with a gloved hand should be enough to force the bar under the trim. If not, rap the pry bar with a rubber mallet or hammer. Gently pry the trim away in stages, proceeding along the wall. Make sure to take your time and go slowly—prying back too quickly may snap the trim. Even if you don’t intend to reuse the trim, it’s still easier to pull it off in entire lengths rather than small, broken pieces. Baseboards often get damaged during trim removal. Unless you are removing quality, expensive baseboards, you may want to price out the cost of new baseboards against the work of salvaging and repairing the old baseboards. Tip If you plan to reuse trim, devise a marking system on the back of the trim pieces for easier installation later. You may want to begin by writing “1” on the back of the first piece with an “up” arrow, then continuing in this method in an orderly, clockwise fashion around the room.
- Try Removing the Center Section of Flooring Often you will find that vinyl flooring has been entirely perimeter-installed, which makes the removal process go much faster. In other words, only a 6-inch perimeter has been glued or stapled down; the middle of the vinyl flooring lays loose. To check and see if this is the case in your room, cut through the flooring around the perimeter of the room, about 8 inches away from the walls. Keep your cut parallel to the walls, and see if the center of the flooring pulls up easily.
- Cut the Flooring Into Strips When removing vinyl flooring, it’s a good idea to always keep your utility knife handy. As you remove pieces of flooring, you can slice them up into long, narrow strips, maintaining a width of no more than 18 inches. Cut off the length only when it gets unwieldy and in your way. Keeping the strips narrow will benefit you later when you dispose of the old flooring. It can be tempting to start pulling back or rolling up large sheets of vinyl flooring at a time. However, this is not recommended, as the sheet vinyl can become heavy and difficult to manage. There’s no reason to keep the vinyl in large sheets unless you plan on giving it to a friend or reusing it in another part of the house.
- Remove Glued-Down Flooring With a Pry Bar Whether it’s the entire floor or just the perimeter, glued-down vinyl flooring is best removed through tenacious hard scraping. Begin by doing as much of the prying as possible with the tip of a flat pry bar, chiseling under the vinyl to separate it from the underlayment. Because the pry bar is blunt, it will work only if the vinyl is lightly glued down.
- Use a 5-in-1 Tool When you can no longer scrape up the flooring with the prybar, switch to a sharper tool. Force the end of a freshly sharpened 5-in-1 tool between the vinyl and subfloor. Use sharp, jabbing strokes. If the adhesive on your floor is old, you’ll discover that the tool chips away at it fairly easily. As you chisel, use your other hand to keep peeling back the vinyl. If the vinyl seems to come away from the floor too easily, it’s likely you are delaminating the vinyl sheet, which means separating the vinyl layer from its backing layer. Make sure that you are removing the full thickness of the flooring as you chisel and pull.
- Peel Away by Hand Whenever you can get a grip on a section of flooring, try to pull it back, either straight upward or backward toward you. This gives you greater pulling power.
- Use a Heat Gun A heat gun can be very useful for loosening hard adhesive that is difficult to scrape. Turn the heat gun on low, wait for it to sufficiently heat up, and wave it around the junction between the flooring and the underlayment. Alternately, you can try to heat up the top side of the flooring in a small section, then pull that section back. A heat gun also works well when you are removing glued-down vinyl tiles.
- Dispose of the Old Flooring Long strips of sheet vinyl can be folded up accordion-style into squares if you score the surface with a utility knife. The first score will be easy to fold back, but the second score and all alternating scores are more difficult. You’ll need to force them a bit to snap them into a fold. In most communities, vinyl flooring cannot be recycled, so you need to dispose of it along with your traditional trash. However, in some towns, building materials are not accepted in household trash—check with local ordinances on proper disposal methods in your area. This may involve taking the flooring to a specified waste disposal site.
Conclusion
Vinyl flooring can be an ideal choice for any room of your home, unless you want to remove it. Vinyl flooring comes in a lot of different varieties and can be found in most homes. Removing vinyl flooring can seem very daunting but with the correct tools and a good plan, you can have the job done in a matter of hours.