Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - wood floor restoration

Help! We are renovating an old farm house. We removed carpet from the living and dining rooms and refinished wood floors found underneath with good results! Now onto the kitchen - After removing vinyl flooring and subflooring, we found they used an adhesive to adhere the linoleum. I'm down to the adhesive and not sure of the best method to remove it. I've tried scraping, a heat gun and an adhesive remover with limited success. I'd really like to be able to salvage this floor! Thank you!

I just pulled up two layers of old vinyl/linoleum flooring. I found under each layer a thin (1/4") layer of plywood. There was that nasty layer of adhesive you described over the second layer of plywood. I briefly tried scraping and heat, but then realized the best thing to do was to just remove this layer of plywood. Underneath it should be a vapor barrier (i.e. roofing paper) and the main subfloor.

Good luck.

I am redoing an old mill house in an historical district and I ran across the same problem - to make matters worse the flooring contained asbestos fibers.

I finally hired 3 men to help me and we scraped all of it off - an area 18' x 6' - it took two ten hour days but we finally got it all off. There does not seem to be an easy way to remove this type of glued down flooring. Wish I had better news for you.

Good luck
R. Baker

Thank you for your replies! I have found a solution - by accident! While sheetrocking the walls, my carpenter was using buckets of water to clean his tools, and one of his buckets had a leak in it. Wherever he placed the bucket, it soaked the floor through to the adhesive. (I, like Robert, believe my floor also contained asbestos fibers.) I used a scraper to scrape away the layer of now soggy "fiber" and lots of rags to wipe off the "liquified" gooey adhesive. The remaining residue should come off with the drum sander! Another old wood floor saved! Thanks again!

Laura

Well, if the adhesive contains asbestos, I feel okay about scraping it up as a gooey mess. Please protect your garbage man and you water supply by disposing of it securely wrapped in plastic garbage bags.

But the thought of sanding up the remaining asbestos-bearing residue -- thus making it airborne and collecting on every surface of your house for the next 50 years -- sends shivers up my spine.

Please have the gooey mess tested for asbestos before sanding.