How To Remove Glued Down Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Removing engineered hardwood floors that are glued down directly to concrete is not only a very messy job to undertake, it's also a lot of dang work. Don't think that you'll be done in a couple of hours when you set out to do this. These are much different types of floors to remove than say carpeting or a floated laminate floor.

So you are probably wondering just how long all of this is going to take? The good thing is you can kind of tell just how hard and how long it's going to take you from a couple of simple factors:

1. Who Originally Installed The Engineered Floor:

If the floor was originally installed by you or the previous homeowner as a standard DIY type of project, then you might be in good shape. Typically, with these types of installations you'll usually find that some sub-standard or simply wrong adhesives were used to get the boards to stick to the concrete. Also, not saying that homeowners are cheap here or anything, but everyone wants to save a little money so there's probably not the proper amount of glue underneath either. This will make for a much easier and quicker removal process.

On the other hand, if the original hardwood engineered floor was installed by a professional installation company, you might want to start limbering up that back and packing a couple of lunches. I can almost guarantee you they used the good sticky stuff and lot's of it to get the boards down. They don't like to be called back for repairs because, typically, they don't get paid for it if a board comes up or shifts. If this is your case, you need to prepare yourself now that you will have your work cut out for you.

Believe it or not, depending on what kind of flooring was laid down to begin with will actually determine a lot. Some of them are simply easier to remove than others. As an example, some engineered floors were manufactured with a foam back in an effort to make the floors quieter. These are actually really easy to get out, although you'll likely spend a bit more time sanding and scraping the glue and foam off the concrete.

However, some were made with multiple relief cuts along the backside. There are many theories out there as to why a manufacturer puts in these cuts, but mine is simply because they always have so no reason to change. Other theories suggest that it makes them so they won't "cup" as bad. Still others say it's because floors aren't level and having these cuts help to make the flooring shape and grab the concrete better. Whatever it is, I really don't know why. The problem is, these cuts tend to harbor a ton of glue really securing them down to the floor. These will take you a long time to remove because of this.

1. First, take your circular saw and make sure you set the actual cutting depth to the exact thickness of the flooring. It's easier if you have a spare flooring board around to do this, or if not if you can get one of them up and actually set the depth of the cut on the board to the concrete. Be prepared, this will dull your saw blade as it will lightly touch/scrape the surface of the concrete. The main thing is is that you want to make sure you cut entirely through the engineered flooring. Be sure to do this with the saw unplugged.
2. Once the depth is set, you are going to make a grid a foot to two foot a part similar to what you would do with chalk lines on the floor, except you are going to do this by cutting. Simply cut from one wall to the opposite wall in a straight line and repeat the process until you got the first rows cut. Then do the same for the perpendicular rows ( to make the square pattern). These are the sections that you are going to attempt to pull up.
3. With a pry bar in hand, start working it into one of the sections at the cut line under a floor board. You'll likely need the sledge here to really beat that sucker in. When you got it, use some leverage and pry that board off the glued concrete. If they were tongue and groove, you'll likely need to give each board in the section a quick loosening in an effort to get the whole section up. Hopefully if all works out you'll be able to get a section at a time, if not it's gonna be a board by board process. Continue on until you've got all the boards removed.
4. Once all the flooring is removed, using the floor scraper, scrape off all the remaining glue from the concrete. If it doesn't come up easily you might need to use the rotary sander here with a fairly course sand paper to chisel off the glue.

That's it, that's really all there is to removing glued down engineered hardwood flooring from a concrete floor. It's a simple process, but can be back-breaking and time intensive.