How To: Remove Laminate Flooring

Hello, my friend, hello again; today we come together to talk about How To: Remove Laminate Flooring and hope the blog can help you.

While tearing out floors would normally seem like a headache, removing laminate flooring isn’t as a big of a challenge as you might expect. With the right tools and this handy guide teaching how to remove laminate floors, you’ll be able to pry up those planks in no time.

Laminate flooring has been a popular floor choice since its invention in the late ’70s. With a typical lifespan of 15 to 25 years, the material is durable, but it will inevitably get faded, scratched, gouged, or go out of style. Whether you want it gone because of its condition or because it’s no longer in fashion, the process for how to remove laminate flooring is simple enough to do yourself.

That said, you’ll want to recruit some friends to help you haul out the bulky and heavy flooring. You might also want to consider renting a dumpster. Compare prices from several local dumpster operators since your garbage hauler may not be the cheapest—and know that prices vary widely between haulers.

Types of Laminate Flooring

Before you can start tearing up your laminate floors you need to know which kind of laminate you’re working with, so you remove it properly.

• Glued laminate was the first generation of laminate floor. As you might have guessed, the planks are held together with glue. This kind isn’t as popular anymore, but if your floor is old, this might be what you’re dealing with. Glued flooring can’t be reused, so you can remove the planks with reckless abandon.
• Floating laminate, or snap-together laminate, is when the laminate floor isn’t attached to the subfloor, instead the flooring “floats” on top of a foam cushion. This the next generation of laminate. Its planks were designed to fit together without glue. The tongue and groove edges are coated with a sealing product and the planks snapped together. This type of laminate can be reused. Go slowly and handle with care to avoid chipping if you want to use it again.

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