Given up
on that old hardwood floor, thinking it has seen better
days? Replacing your hardwood floors with
new may not be a total demo job like you think, but will
depend on several factors. Much older homes where the
actual hardwood is the subfloor will require more
work, as it is not as simple as removing the floor up to
cabinets (photo right).
In homes with actual subfloors (plywood, OSB, or
planking) all that is needed is removal of the actual
worn out hardwood. With all types of hardwood floor
replacements, expect a lot of dust to be raised, more so
with a direct gluedown to the subfloor.
With plank gluedown tear outs, the hardwood will more
than likely have to be cut into sections for easier
removal. In some cases, should you have a floor glued to
a wood subfloor, successful removal may not be possible
as the older adhesive often pulls chunks from the
underlying sub floor with it. Options are removing both
the hardwood and subfloor, install another layer of
plywood over the old, or skip the new plywood and use a
floating floor.
With any addition of plywood and/or hardwood it is
important to bear in mind what effect the new finished
floor height will have on the rest of the area.
Baseboard may have to be removed as the new floor may
tower against the old, making it look much smaller. A
thin engineered floating floor may be in the cards if
you don’t want baseboard removed, but these types have
their limitations. Furthermore, depending on how old the
home is, older baseboard removal may create additional
problems if the home should happen to have older
plastered walls.
 Older
solid 3/4” strip floors nailed to subfloors will the
easiest replacement. There may be need for some cutting
but not much. Often each board can be pried loose of
it’s fasteners one by one from the tongue side. Newer
pneumatic stapled floors (widespread usage mid 90’s) on
the other hand will be very troublesome to remove. Most
engineered flooring that was stapled will be easier due
to the smaller sized staples that are often used.
Older parquet floors glued directly to any sub floor may
be one of the hardest removal jobs because of the way
they are constructed in short finger like patterns
measuring only one inch by five or six inches. They may
have been installed in blocks, but they will not be
removed in blocks, trust me. In the 70’s and 80’s foamed
back parquet was quite popular. Removal of these
products will be quite simple in most cases, but the
residual glue or foam that may be attached to the
subfloor may be another chore unless the new floor is
stapled, nailed, or floated.
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