Q: A few years ago I had a vinyl floor installed by a professional. He put down a flake board underlayment over another vinyl floor, and then installed a glued down vinyl floor. Approximately one and a half years later little brown spots started appearing on the vinyl floor. The spots resemble cigarette burns. We went back to the store where we bought it and they told us they would supply the vinyl but would not do the labor ,because it was out of warranty. As it turns out ,the reason for the brown spots was exotic wood chips were put in the underlayment and the oils are bleeding through.
Well it appears I am stuck taking up the old floor, due to the height of the present floor. I watched the floor being put down and they did use a lot of staples. How in the world would you suggest pulling up this floor. I can picture something along the line of a heavy duty scraper with serrated teeth on the front of it. I would appreciate any advice you have.
Thanks,
Thomas Blessing
A: What you will need here is a circular saw (skill saw) and any kind of small lifter, such as a crow bar. You will want to set the saw’s depth to the thickness of the vinyl and underlayment, which is usually around 3/8″, then cut the floor into strips about 1′ apart. Once the floor is cut into strips, you will then take your lifter and begin pulling up the strips of flooring and underlayment.
I am hesitant to believe that the brown spots you are seeing is due to exotic wood chips being in your flake board. Commonly these spots occur when regular steel staples are used rather than stainless or galvanized staples. Then once the adhesive is applied, especially with a latex based glue, its the perfect set up for a nightmare. I would suggest checking the location of these spots as you pull up the vinyl, if these spots occur over the staples, then you have found the problem. If these spots occur in areas where no staples are, than its possible the flake board is the problem, but I stress that this is not likely to be the scenario.
