# Tearing Up a Glue Down Hardwood Floor, Need HELP!  Desperate!



## Paul Cataldo (May 4, 2009)

Started tearing out a hardwood floor today, which is a typical 3/8" glue down floor on a concrete slab.  This is the 2 1/2" (or thereabouts) wide stuff.
  Now I've torn out a number of glue down hardwood floors over the years, and I've always either used good old elbow grease and prybars/flatbars/etc, OR, I've sometimes used chipping hammers with wide, flat, beveled edge blades to get it up.  
  Until today, I've never had a problem.  However, this glue is TOUGH.  It's bringing up some of the concrete with it at times.
  I tried the chipping hammer, and even got one of those "walk behind floor scrapers", which have the 8"-10" wide blades that reciprocate left to right, and basically act like an electric scraper.  
  I also tried cutting slots/rips in the floor with a skilsaw, and drilling holes in the floor and then squirting mineral spirits down in the slots/holes, in an attempt to help dissolve the glue.
  It helped a little, but not much.

One of my "old timer" buddies says I need to get the BIGGEST Hilti "905" (I think) chipping hammer, with the wide scraper blade (which is about 1/8" thick), and this will be the only way to get it up.
  I was only able to get the medium sized Hilti "705" (I think?), today, and I did not have the thin 1/8" blade.  I only had those thick beveled edge blades to work with, as the tool rental place did not have the wide thin blades.
  ANYHOW, the big "walk behind floor scraper" I described above, had a thin blade on it, and didn't really work well, so I am skeptical about the larger sized chipping hammer and thin scraper blade working, since it would be very similar to the walk behind floor scraper/blade combo I tried this morning.
  WHAT else can I try guys?  As stated, I've NEVER had this problem before.  I mean, I've had some TOUGH glue down floors before, but never like this.
  WHAT else can I try?  Anyone ever been in this situation before???  I need a miracle...
Crossing my fingers that someone here can help!


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## GeorgiaTrout (May 4, 2009)

The guy that installed our wood flooring said, "If you ever want this wood floor up you'll need to pour some boiling hot water on it". This may help you along with the tool you mentioned above.


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## psmith717 (May 4, 2009)

i just got done wrestling with a glue down floor,  i would recommend pouring water over the entire surface for 3 days prior to tear out,  a 3ft prybar and a flathead shovel worked best for me.  just keep jamming the pry bar until it gets under the floor and work it along best you can and steadily pop it up, pour xyzlene over all glue on floor let sit and use a good scapper for the glue on the floor.  there really isnt a good way to do it.


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## Paul Cataldo (May 4, 2009)

Guys,
  I had thought about the water thing before, and I'm wondering what "boiling" water would do?  Is that to break up the GLUE, and would that mean that I would have to instantly start pulling the wood up before the water cools?
  OR, is it just simply a matter of the water having to soak for several days like psmith says above, in an attempt to break the bond between the wood and glue?
  I guess I've just always been afraid of soaking the inside of someones kitchen floor with water.  I also wonder how much water are we talking here?
  I mean, do I need to dump water over the hardwood once, and kind of let it pool up on the top of the wood, and hope that it soaks in over the coarse of 3 days?  OR, must I continually visit the house each morning, and keep pouring more water on it?
  I am willing to try this, but I need to determine how much water, in what amount of time is best???  I'm sure there is no EXACT recipe to this, but a general ballpark idea would be nice.. ?? 
  Thanks for your help fellas.


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## JD (May 6, 2009)

Over Thanksgiving I pulled out the carpet in the house and replace with laminate flooring....the foyar was a small area of hardwood so it had to comeout as well and it was glued down.  Talk about a pain in the rear...it was glued to the subfloor which was plywood. We took a skillsaw and set the depth gauge to just cut through the hardwood and scored it in all directions. This helped alot but still had some of the subfloor come up with it. Good luck with it.


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## whitworth (May 13, 2009)

*Lordy, I always worried I'd have that problem*

Ever since we put down a glue down floor on the concrete first floor.  

Like someone said, "An ounce of pervention is a pound of cure."  Never did I want to hear from the wife.  "The floor looks terrible, lets put back some carpeting."

For those who have no wax floors and want to avoid a tearup in the relatively near future, here's what I do.  

My successful experiment

First, you use a broom to sweep up the big dirt.   Then I started with some concentrated industrial strength cleaner/degreaser. (Buying by the gallon is a lot cheaper)

Put a little cleaner in a bucket with water, it's concentrated,  and mop the entire floor.  The mop is squeezed, so a lot of water doesn't get on the floor.  You're only cleaning; not bathing the floor.   This cleaner, which I've put in spray bottles to use as a general cleaner around the house is a wonderful cleaner. It is a great product for cleaning, but not for shining a no wax floor. 

So I clean out the bucket, put in about a quarter bucket of water and put in a little Murphy's Oil Soap.  The object here is using a more concentrated cleaner, as you're not cleaning but basically "shinning" the floor.   On this "shinning" I use a mop sponge, to just get a sheen on the flooring. 

 One section of the glue down "wood" flooring is almost ten years old and holding up great.

No word yet that this older floor isn't shiny enough and needs replacement.  Lasted far longer than I originally thought.  

An ounce of prevention -a good frequent cleaning - has prevented the cure -tearing up a glue floor.  

I'll take a little mop action over a tough tear up job, any day.

I'll try to avoid the tear up process like the plague.


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## jimbo4116 (May 13, 2009)

JD said:


> Over Thanksgiving I pulled out the carpet in the house and replace with laminate flooring....the foyar was a small area of hardwood so it had to comeout as well and it was glued down.  Talk about a pain in the rear...it was glued to the subfloor which was plywood. We took a skillsaw and set the depth gauge to just cut through the hardwood and scored it in all directions. This helped alot but still had some of the subfloor come up with it. Good luck with it.



If you are ever going to glue down any floor to the plywood or MDF subfloor spend a little money and nail down a layer of 1/4 inch plywood.  When it came time to replace flooring saw as you said but deep enough to score 1/4 plywood as well and you won't have to worry about the glue.

We put down parquet flooring with glue in our kitchen and the guy we bought the flooring from suggest this.  10 years later when the wife was tire of it, remove only took a couple of hours.  Only cost an extra $50 or so.


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## Mission (May 13, 2009)

try using a heat gun while tearing it up. the adhesive is rubberized and will not give up the fight easy. this will help with the tools you already have/using

i just did it yesterday at a customers house


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## quinn (May 14, 2009)

There is a product called Detach 11.It is a adhesive desolver and works good on really old carpet glue to release carpet from floor.I think water would work great if itis a water based glue or Detach for solvent base.


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## DBM78 (May 14, 2009)

Paul Cataldo said:


> Started tearing out a hardwood floor today, which is a typical 3/8" glue down floor on a concrete slab.  This is the 2 1/2" (or thereabouts) wide stuff.
> Now I've torn out a number of glue down hardwood floors over the years, and I've always either used good old elbow grease and prybars/flatbars/etc, OR, I've sometimes used chipping hammers with wide, flat, beveled edge blades to get it up.
> Until today, I've never had a problem.  However, this glue is TOUGH.  It's bringing up some of the concrete with it at times.
> I tried the chipping hammer, and even got one of those "walk behind floor scrapers", which have the 8"-10" wide blades that reciprocate left to right, and basically act like an electric scraper.
> ...



I used one of those Hilti 905 for the bathroom in my basement that thing is a cadillac. I used it for busting up the foundation for the tub/shower. Hilti makes the best. The way its designed it doesn't shake you to death. Its one bad tool. I rented it from home depot for 4 hours was done in 20 minutes it was like $45.00. Best money I ever spent.


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## Sweetwater (May 15, 2009)

Mission said:


> try using a heat gun while tearing it up. the adhesive is rubberized and will not give up the fight easy. this will help with the tools you already have/using
> 
> i just did it yesterday at a customers house



What he said.


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