lulobster

the previous owner of the house placed down some plywood on top of the wood floor, and then vinyl tiles which i hate.. (sorry)

well heres the thing, i have to rip out about 150 sq ft of this stuff, HOW!? =(

i want to put down some Engineered Laminate floor that is on a sale and i cant pass the deal. OR would it be smarter to sand down the orig. floor and put some vineer (sp?) over it? i want to cut down my cost, but also the amount of labor. its just me and i have to do it to about 5-6 rooms.

glennjanie

Hello Lulobster:
The vinyl tile can be removed with a tool from the rental place. It has an oscillating blade on the front of it that is just the right angle to scrape the floor clean (its electric). Thing is, it can't get the old adhesive off the floor, which could be a problem. BTW I hate vinyl tiles too.
If you have hardwood floors under the plywood, I would go for the remove plywood and refinish. Once you get all the nails out and strip the old varnish off, the floor is not too hard to refinish. It can be sanded with a rental machine that Lowe's has. It is a square, orbital sander that won't dig into the floor but gives a nice smooth finish (drum sanders dig in before you can say 'don't do that').
Lamanite floors are a good attempt at copying the hardwood floors, but if you already have hardwood, it will look the best.
Glenn

lulobster

sanding it is then =) thanks!

rachael24

Stupid lazy people...LOL Good luck with the project!

guyod

If they were really lazy they would of put the vinyl on the hardwood floors.... Inspect the hardwood floors for pet urine. these stains will never sand out or cover with stain...