Over a year ago, my neighbor had a leak in his master bedroom bathroom shower. To find it, removed the one piece vinyl surround, glued & screwed to the studs. Then he thinks, "I want to replace this with tile." So the pan has to go - except a circular saw creates toxic smoke & clogs up. Anyway, he got it out finally.
Other major plumbing leaks occured & took priority (and money), now his wife is fed up.
THEN he says, "might as well put down a better floor too."
He started trying to peel up the floor, but it only "chips" off in pieces.
So he has ruined a couple square feet of the floor, so its gotta come out.
IS THERE A SOLVENT TO LOOSEN THE GLUE ??
Would need to get some vapor cannisters for the respirator.
The maybe 1/8" thick vinyl (?) flooring sheet is glued to a maybe 5/8" sheet (not sure if ply or strandboard) which is screwed down with not only 1 1/2" screws, but some 3" which I guess are placed into the joists below.
The sub-floor has some water damage that I can see, by the pan & behind the toilet. Not sure if there is more still hidden, or if it needs to be replaced.
Everything I can think of is a nightmare:
1) brute force w/ big crowbar - but the joists runs "shortways" in the room and we must work "longways" so the leverage is on the sub-floor & might just break the sub-floor. Bent screws harder to remove, and I expect they would mostly be the the 3" screws.
2) use a magnet to find the screws, use a router bit to remove the 1/8" vinyl above each screw, use a pick to scrape the slot clean, and remove. Screws in the couple square feet of exposed area did remove easily.
3) Use a circular saw thru both flooring & sub-floor, just beside each joist. Then for the remaining strips on top of the joists, either find the screws as 2) above, or use a vibratory blade tool slid above the joist to saw them off. Dunno what to do as we approach the walls - use a jigsaw or the vibratory saw I guess. Have to create a temp floor to stand on as we work.
4) Tile on top of existing vinyl ? Does that work? But it would make a trip hazard at the entryway, since the existing flooring is a bit raised above the bedroom level.
Other major plumbing leaks occured & took priority (and money), now his wife is fed up.
THEN he says, "might as well put down a better floor too."
He started trying to peel up the floor, but it only "chips" off in pieces.
So he has ruined a couple square feet of the floor, so its gotta come out.
IS THERE A SOLVENT TO LOOSEN THE GLUE ??
Would need to get some vapor cannisters for the respirator.
The maybe 1/8" thick vinyl (?) flooring sheet is glued to a maybe 5/8" sheet (not sure if ply or strandboard) which is screwed down with not only 1 1/2" screws, but some 3" which I guess are placed into the joists below.
The sub-floor has some water damage that I can see, by the pan & behind the toilet. Not sure if there is more still hidden, or if it needs to be replaced.
Everything I can think of is a nightmare:
1) brute force w/ big crowbar - but the joists runs "shortways" in the room and we must work "longways" so the leverage is on the sub-floor & might just break the sub-floor. Bent screws harder to remove, and I expect they would mostly be the the 3" screws.
2) use a magnet to find the screws, use a router bit to remove the 1/8" vinyl above each screw, use a pick to scrape the slot clean, and remove. Screws in the couple square feet of exposed area did remove easily.
3) Use a circular saw thru both flooring & sub-floor, just beside each joist. Then for the remaining strips on top of the joists, either find the screws as 2) above, or use a vibratory blade tool slid above the joist to saw them off. Dunno what to do as we approach the walls - use a jigsaw or the vibratory saw I guess. Have to create a temp floor to stand on as we work.
4) Tile on top of existing vinyl ? Does that work? But it would make a trip hazard at the entryway, since the existing flooring is a bit raised above the bedroom level.