Can You Replace Glued Flooring?

Pulling Up Glued Flooring

• The process for removing glued flooring from a subfloor surface depends on the type of flooring you need to remove. To remove carpet that has been glued to the floor, use a putty knife or a flat-head screwdriver to get beneath the edges of the carpet in one corner and pull the carpet toward the center of the floor to peel it from the surface. For linoleum, cut into the flooring surface with a utility knife to cut the surface into small squares and apply heat, such as with a hair dryer, to the floor’s surface to melt the adhesive and get the flooring free.

Getting the Glue Up

• Once you have the flooring up from the subfloor, you must take care to remove the adhesive, which can cause lumps beneath the new flooring that you want to install. Floor glues may be used by a couple of different means. The first is through scraping, which can be done with a paint scraper or with sandpaper. The other is through softening, which can be accomplished by placing a warm wet sponge against the surface to warm and moisten the glue, making it easier to wipe off.

Installing New Flooring

• After removing both the glued flooring and the adhesive that remains on the floor, you should clean the floor well before installing new flooring. If you find any cracks or dips in the floor surface, fill them in with leveling compound before laying the new floor. After the floor is level and dry, install any new adhesive-secured flooring to the flat floor surface, using the method advised on the product packaging.

Laying Flooring Over Old Flooring

• In some instances, it may save time to install new flooring directly over the original glued flooring. Though this process doesn’t work with carpet, which doesn’t provide an even enough surface for any type of flooring, it does work with linoleum flooring, which generally lays flat. Both laminate flooring planks and tiles can be glued directly over a linoleum floor surface as long as the surface is even, and if you prefer not to ruin the original linoleum flooring, in case you want to use it again, laminate can be installed over the floor surface with no glue or adhesive.