Removing Linoleum floor residue

[John Almonte]

Hello,

I was hoping I could get some advice on re-doing my kitchen floor. I removed the existing linoleum, but it left a layer of "felt" or cardboard-type material on top of the OSB sub-floor. Any suggestions on what would be a good way to remove this "felt" layer?

Below are a couple of photos of what it looks like.


Thanks!
John

355594 355595

[Stephen Tashiro]

Try dry heat on a small spot - from a heat gun or hair dryer. See if the material softens and can be scraped off.

Is the dark area in the photo the residual felt? Or is it the light area? What kind of floor will the new floor be?

[Lee Schierer]

The only way I know of is to use a scraper. However, depending upon the age of the floor, there could be asbestos in that gray material.

[Lee DeRaud]

Agree with the above, as long as "scraper" means something like this:
http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Compact_Floor_Stripper/NS2010/index.html

[Lon Crosby]

You can get scraper blades for rotary impact tools and reciprocating saws. Smaller blades makes for a bigger job. The alternative is to use a stripper. For something like this, I would consider a fatty acid methyl-ester (i.e., biodiesel) based stripper.

[Chris Padilla]

John,

What are your plans for a replacement floor?

[Charlie Velasquez]

John,What are your plans for a replacement floor? This... just about any floor covering will turn out better if the sub-floor is in perfect condition. To that end consider a layer of 1/4" luan or similar (this is what our local flooring business used in my kitchen https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/panel-products/underlayment-panels/plywood-underlayment/1-4-4-x-8-integraply-underlayment/p-1444441905352.htm) . . . . with screws, a lot. Then cover the screw heads with a special mastic made for that purpose. If your plan is new vinyl know that over time, imperfections on your subfloor/underlayment will telegraph through. Time spent now to make the underlayment perfect helps make the finished job nice years down the road.

[Chris Padilla]

My question about the replacement floor may or may not influence how much you need to worry about what is under it but in general, it is usually a good idea to take everything out to the original sub-floor and go from there as Charlie above suggested.

For example, if you were putting another linoleum floor, you probably don't even have to remove the existing one.

If you were putting down a wood floor (engineered or solid hardwood), you probably want to go to the sub-floor.

If you were putting down tile, you would almost certainly want to take it down to the sub-floor. For tile, one of the more important things to look as it to see if your floor is stiff enough to support the tile so that gets into your structure/joists. Then depending on the tile, you may need extra layers of plywood on top of that or hardiboard or even floor warming. Marble tile needs a stiffer floor than porcelain tile, for example. Large format tiles need a stiff floor...also very very level floor (no dips or humps).

Each floor type will have different requirements as to what goes between it and the sub-floor.

[Roger Feeley]

+1 on the rotary impact tool.

We had to take up some vinyl and it was stuck to underlayment. It was better to take up the underlayment because there was a lot less glue. We bought a Bosch rotary hammer with a sort of jackhammer scraper and it made short work of the glue. We still had to pull about a million staples and sand some. It was a lot of work. I would guess that a contractor might have just cut out the subfloor down to the joists and replaced it all.

I tried the heat gun and it might work on one or two small spots but it's just too slow.

[David Helm]

This isn't about a way to remove it. It looks to me that what you have is the base layer of vinyl flooring, not linoleum. Real linoleum (most common current brand is Marmoleum) is a solid material made from linseed oil and other things. No base layer to remove.

[Mike Circo]

I'll second the idea to lay down a layer of ¼" Luan plywood. My home is relatively new, and that's the standard practice.
Probably quicker and easier than any scraping, chemical application type of repair.

[Joe Kieve]

+1 on putting down 1/4" plywood underlayment. Most flooring companies would not remove the linoleum because of the possibility of asbestos in the mastic.
Depending on how old it is, it may or may not be hazardous. Don't take a chance...put down the underlayment and be done with it.