Timber floor removal can be a complicated process. How easily your flooring material is removed will depend on a range of factors. These include the pattern they’re laid down in, their shape and size, and most importantly, the way they’re attached to your subfloor.
There are three main types of adhesion methods when it comes to timber flooring:
Floating Timber
Maybe one of the easiest types of floors to remove, floating timber floors are not permanently attached to the subfloor. There’s no glue or any type of adhesive material that needs to be broken down. Once the skirting has been removed, the flooring can be carefully pried up and removed piece by piece.
Plank on Plywood
A slightly more complex operation than floating timber, this form of adhesion involves the use of a combining underlay in between the floor and the subfloor. The floor planks are either glued or nailed to a sheet of plywood (the underlay). Once attached, the sheets are laid directly onto the subfloor and kept in place with nails, glue or other forms of strong adhesive.
Direct Adhesion
This is almost always the hardest type of floor to remove. Direct adhesion involves timber floorboards being glued directly onto the concrete slab beneath them. A very labour intensive removal process, the floorboards need to be separated into sections and removed from the slab with a specialised tool. Following this, the floor is ground down in preparation for the new floor.
Every part of the flooring process presents its own challenges and requires a comprehensive knowledge of the materials used in order to work efficiently. If the correct removal procedures aren’t followed, you risk encountering issues with your new floor like sections being unlevel.
