Question on preparing floor prior to installing laminate flooring
 

Hello, this is my first post on this forum. We just purchased a small park model home and i would like to install new laminate flooring but I have a question on the preparing the floor. The home now has some carpet in the living area and then vinyl throughout the rest of the house. I know the vinyl is going to be a real pain in the you know what to get up because it is totally glued down. I have removed the carpet and the floor under the carpet is fine. The vinyl is 1/16" thick so if I were to leave it I wonder what would happen if I installed the vinyl over it. Would the 1/16" step up cause a problem? Has anyone tried this? Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do in this situation rather than take the vinyl up? Just to clarify I plan to install the laminate where the carpet was and over the vinyl too.

Thanks
Pappy

The best thing to do is leave the vinyl. Get some Ardex or similar cement based floor leveler and feather it out where the vinyl meets the subfloor. This will take care of any transition problems. Just make sure the vinyl is secure at this area.

Any variation in the subfloor will show up through the new vinyl floor. Feather it out with the ardex or plaster of paris or leveler of your choice.

Pappy:

The fastest and easiest thing would be to just leave the vinyl down, use a cement based floor leveler (like Mapei Planipatch sold at Home Depot I think) mixed with the recommended additive (pronounced "adhesive", and called "Mapei Planipatch Plus") to just trowel a ramp between the flooring under the old carpet and the linoleum.

But, there are more fun and interesting ways to skin cats.

If the vinyl was stuck down with two part epoxy, you can always pull up the underlayment (with vinyl attached) and nail or screw down new fir underlayment.

And, if this vinyl has a paper backing between the vinyl wear layer and the adhesive holding it down, then there is a fairly easy way to remove it:
a) Pry the vinyl up using a pry bar, and probably the vinyl wear layer will tear off the paper backing which will remain stuck to the floor.
b) Use a paint brush to paint that paper backing with lacquer thinner until it's wet, and then cover the wet paper backing with wax paper and press it down so the lacquer thinner doesn't evaporate. (Maybe use a small steel chain to weigh down the edges of the wax paper so the lacquer thinner doesn't evaporate from under the wax paper.)
c) Allow time for the lacquer thinner to penetrate through the paper backing to the interface between the paper and the glue holding the paper down. Once the laquer thinner penetrates down to that point and dissolves the glue at that interface, the paper can be scraped off easily with a putty knife.
d) do an encore performance to dissolve the old vinyl flooring adhesive, and scrape it up with a putty knife too.

During the 50's and 60's Roberts made a flooring adhesive called "Linogrip 55" which was actually a water based PASTE. As such, it doesn't cure but merely dries up, and so you can turn it back into paste again by getting it wet, and that means you can clean the paste off the floor with a sponge and bucket of water. If you ever see a medium to dark brown adhesive holding flooring down, always try using ordinary water to remove it cuz it might be Roberts Linogrip 55.

Obviously, allow plenty of ventilation when working with flammable solvents, and refrain from any Darwin Award winning moves like lighting up a smoke while surrounded by flooring that's wet with flammable solvents. And, if you start daydreaming TOO MUCH, take a breather outside. Just take the reasonable and necessary precautions to minimize the amount of solvent vapour in the air to keep yourself safe whenever working with any flammable solvents.

Why do I think the OP has manufactured home?..If he does then the flooring is composite board or plywood..

I use "Rock hard Water Putty" over wood as I find the cement based does not stick too well in my experience. Mix in a drywall mud pan and put down with a 6 or 9 inch taping knife.

My question is..Why do people still buy laminate flooring? There are so many good wood veneers at the same price point if you look around.

Later Tom

Many homes these days are using OSB for subfloors and some are installing particleboard over it for underlayment. Terrible combination. If there is only a 16th (I'm thinking it's prob'ly closer to an 8th) inch height from substrate, there could be a couple issues. One is that the whole floor is particleboard and the vinyl is glued direct to it. This can be a half-decent moisture barrier, so it might be good to leave it down. But it could be that the vinyl is only attached on the perimeter and on top of plain ol' OSB. In that case, remove the vinyl.

Perhaps your Portland Cement based products weren't mixed properly. They stick quite well to most substrates, especially to wood products. They trowel easy and give very good results under most floorcoverings.

There are a number of differences between laminate flooring and engineered hardwoods. Not the least of which is the density of laminates and their resistance to moisture damage (they can still be damaged, but not as easily as hardwood). The click/snap-together laminates also have over the glue or staple-down engineered hardwoods the fact that they are much easier to repair and replace. And there is a real financial difference too. More DIYers opt for laminates for their ease of installation and lower over-all costs, both in short and long term scenarios.

I did floors for 35 years. I am disabled now, but I still want to install a new floor for myself. I can manage a laminate and it will withstand the abuse my mobility device causes and gives me much needed time to clean up liquid messes that I am unable to handle as quickly as I used to. I love the beauty and richness of a quality hardwood, but I can get pretty close to that now in the better laminates. More choices are a good thing. :D

R'gards,

Jim