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How To Remove Engineered Hardwood Glued Down On Slab?


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#1 cw68

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Posted 05 April 2008 - 10:04 PM

Last month we had new engineered hardwood floors installed in our house. They suck. The wood is way too soft (I seriously think they were mislabeled), but S&G has given us a credit for the material and we have new ones to install. On top of that, the idiots we hired to install them ruined the finish and did a poor job to begin with. GRR.

So now we need to rip the glued-down floors out. Does anyone know how to do this? We're down to a pry bar and hammer and it's very slow going.

I've contacted, and rented something from, United Rentals, but they can't seem to point us in a good direction. Can anyone here?

#2 Sierra Guy

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Posted 05 April 2008 - 10:17 PM

It sounds like you have a glued down floor? This is exactly why I don't like glue down... Too difficult to work with if there are any problems. Okay, aside from mess working with the glue in the first place and the added cost of the adhesive. Most home improvement stores, such as Home Depot & Lowes, rents a tool for shredding up tile, you may want to see if this works for you. I used a pretty hefty scraper / pry tool from HD to remove tile and it worked great. The problem found was removing the remainder of the adhesive (morter)...

Why are you riping up the flooring when the installers ruined it in the first place. Let them deal with the cleanup for their screwup.

#3 cw68

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Posted 05 April 2008 - 10:25 PM

The installers don't call us back and didn't show when they were supposed to.

Yes they are glued down; they are on top of a concrete slab.

We tried the scraper/pry tool that we used to rip up the tile with. Didn't work. We rented an electric one, that didn't work either. Looked at renting an electric scraper thing with a blade after United Rentals said it would work over the phone, but when we went to pick it up they said it wouldn't work.

There has got to be a better way than the pry bar and hammer. The guy we've hired to install the new stuff said he'd take it out for $3.50 per square foot and the little progress we made so far makes me think that there's some other, better way because it wouldn't be worth it for $3.50 per square foot. It would take forever.

#4 Revolutionist

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Posted 05 April 2008 - 10:50 PM

I think your best bet might be to lay down about $100 for beer
and invite all the guys you know to come over for a deconstruction project.

No self-respecting male could say "No" to breaking things and free beer!


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#5 Barb J

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Posted 06 April 2008 - 09:42 AM

CW: so sorry you are going through this! We had a similar thing happen to us. We used a small Folsom flooring store to install glued down engineered wood floors and they did a BAD job on the install. HUGE gaps, etc. Well they came out at their cost and ripped it all up. They pried up each board, then this poor girl had to sit there and use a scraper to scrape off all the leftover wood, then they sanded the slab down. It took about a week and a half of them working 8 hours/day for about 600 sf of wood.

It was a nightmare to live through, but worth it to get the job done right. Pay the man, don't try to do it yourself!!!!!!

Barb

#6 Warren G

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Posted 06 April 2008 - 01:25 PM

Have you tried a demolition hammer with a 1" wide chisel bit? Greenback Rents has them and United probably does too. I bought one from Amazon for around $400 and it gets lots of use, in hard soil too.

Another approach might be to use a circular saw with the blade depth set to almost the entire thickness of the wood floor, make many cuts back and forth across the wood and then you'll have smaller pieces to chip off the slab with the demolition hammer.

Remaining lumps of glue/wood can be removed with a belt sander.
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#7 cw68

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Posted 06 April 2008 - 04:50 PM

QUOTE(Warren G @ Apr 6 2008, 02:25 PM) View Post
Have you tried a demolition hammer with a 1" wide chisel bit? Greenback Rents has them and United probably does too. I bought one from Amazon for around $400 and it gets lots of use, in hard soil too.

Another approach might be to use a circular saw with the blade depth set to almost the entire thickness of the wood floor, make many cuts back and forth across the wood and then you'll have smaller pieces to chip off the slab with the demolition hammer.

Remaining lumps of glue/wood can be removed with a belt sander.

Yep, we tried that and it didn't really work. The pry bar and hammer worked just as well. Today while searching the web on this I saw the circular saw method.

I think in the end we're probably going to have to hire someone to take it out as it will just take waaaay too much time to do ourselves.

sad.gif

#8 MikeinFolsom

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Posted 06 April 2008 - 08:59 PM

Air chisel. Hook one up to your air compressor, if you have one, and viola. Piece of cake. Done it many times before. Next time, floating floor materials.....

#9 cw68

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Posted 06 April 2008 - 09:08 PM

QUOTE(MikeinFolsom @ Apr 6 2008, 09:59 PM) View Post
Air chisel. Hook one up to your air compressor, if you have one, and viola. Piece of cake. Done it many times before. Next time, floating floor materials.....

Hmm, have a compressor in the garage, will have to try this.

I've been told by everyone who came out to bid the job that you shouldn't float engineered hardwood on slab foundations. Don't want to do pergo, so we're stuck. Not to mention we already got the replacement wood.

Air chisel. Thanks.

#10 chris v

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Posted 07 April 2008 - 07:30 AM

QUOTE(cw68 @ Apr 6 2008, 10:08 PM) View Post
Hmm, have a compressor in the garage, will have to try this.

I've been told by everyone who came out to bid the job that you shouldn't float engineered hardwood on slab foundations. Don't want to do pergo, so we're stuck. Not to mention we already got the replacement wood.

Air chisel. Thanks.


Careful with the air chisel, don't chip up your slab...


#11 Darthvader

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Posted 07 April 2008 - 07:43 AM

QUOTE(chris v @ Apr 7 2008, 08:30 AM) View Post
Careful with the air chisel, don't chip up your slab...


Eh, a little Fix-all will take care of that.
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#12 mylo

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Posted 07 April 2008 - 07:46 AM

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#13 MSgt

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Posted 07 April 2008 - 08:40 AM

QUOTE(Barb J @ Apr 6 2008, 10:42 AM) View Post
CW: so sorry you are going through this! We had a similar thing happen to us. We used a small Folsom flooring store to install glued down engineered wood floors and they did a BAD job on the install. HUGE gaps, etc. Well they came out at their cost and ripped it all up. They pried up each board, then this poor girl had to sit there and use a scraper to scrape off all the leftover wood, then they sanded the slab down. It took about a week and a half of them working 8 hours/day for about 600 sf of wood.

It was a nightmare to live through, but worth it to get the job done right. Pay the man, don't try to do it yourself!!!!!!

Barb


Hope you wern't using 'Floors to go' they are installing hard wood at our house in a month or so.

#14 cw68

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Posted 07 April 2008 - 08:46 AM

QUOTE(MSgt @ Apr 7 2008, 09:40 AM) View Post
Hope you wern't using 'Floors to go' they are installing hard wood at our house in a month or so.

Nope, we used a sub-contractor who did a great job laying down the tile in our bathrooms and laundry room. Good with tile, not with hardwood.

#15 stangage70

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Posted 11 April 2008 - 08:50 AM

QUOTE(cw68 @ Apr 6 2008, 10:08 PM) View Post
Hmm, have a compressor in the garage, will have to try this.
...Air chisel. Thanks.


How does it work? Let me know if you need the head-set too... Forgot about that part...




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