Ripping Up Vinyl Flooring in the Entryway

Put on goggles and durable work gloves.

Pry the baseboard off the walls around the perimeter of the entryway. Hook the pry bar between a baseboard and the wall, then gently pull the baseboard and embedded nails away from the wall.

Slice down the middle of the vinyl flooring with a utility knife, starting at one side of the flooring and working toward the other. Make the sections as long as the length of the floor, evenly spacing each section about 12 inches apart to make them manageable to rip up.

Wedge a 5-inch putty knife between a 12-inch-wide section of the flooring and the subfloor. If just the edges of the flooring are glued down, pry up the loosened edge of the vinyl and peel the entire strip off the subfloor. For flooring that's glued down completely, wedge the putty knife under the entire length of the strip as you pull the strip off the subfloor.

Rip up the remaining 12-inch-wide vinyl flooring strips in the same way. Use the putty knife to help loosen firmly bonded sections of the vinyl.

Squirt 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap into a 1-quart spray bottle. Fill the bottle with 1 quart of warm water. Shake the bottle to mix the soap solution.

Douse any adhesive residue on the subfloor with the soap solution. Leave the soap on the adhesive for 30 minutes.

Scrape the soapy adhesive residue off the subfloor using a long-handled floor scraper. Don’t scrape the subfloor too forcefully, as doing so may gouge it.

Remove the vinyl backing fragments using a wet/dry vacuum. Vacuum the subfloor thoroughly until all of the adhesive residue has been removed.