Removal of glued wood flooring
 

Anyone have experience with removing wood flooring thats glued down?

My house flooded yesterday due to heavy rains and I need to remove ~600 sq-ft of water damaged flooring... I know I can get it all up/out with a rotary hammer, but that will take the better part of a few days, so I'm looking for something easier (and better on the back!)

I've seen some machines that look like tile scrapers, so I'm thinking about just renting a tile scraper and experimenting. Thoughts?

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...de&oe=5B712D67

Attaching a picture of the mess... :(

If it's snaplock you can probably heat it. Don't use flame.

If it's real wood dry it out, sand, and refinish. You can use acetone injections to dry wood-the boat guys do it.

I'm wondering if there's some tool available like a 5 foot long pry bar, something with a tip angled so you can jam it under and then push down for leverage. I'd call a tool rental place and see if they've heard of such a thing.

Perhaps you could find an old beat up shovel and cut off most of it so that you had 3 or 4 inches of it left, then sharpen that up some so as to jam it under. Will be pretty big job, that's certain.

If you get tools that work almost sounds like a good candidate for hiring a couple of day laborers.

True enough, if it's solid wood, could be worth a try to sand and re-finish.

Go to HD, Lowes, or some tool rental. They rent electric scrapers. Heavy tool with a blade on the front of it. Vibrates back and forth to scrap up pretty much anything. I scraped up linoleum and tile with it. Hard wood should not be a issue.

They have small ones like this which I found more maneuverable.
https://www.loutec.com/content/uploa...or-scraper.jpg

and big ones like this.

http://www.countrytruevalue.com/medi...20ScraperL.JPG

Depends on the job.

There is a hand tool that would work for you. It’s called a shingle remover, available at any hardware outlet.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Roof-Zone-47-5-in-Shingle-Remover-13827/206272587

Do you know it's glued down?
What's underneath the floor? You might need subfloor as well. If to are fixing I am figuring insurance is not an option. If you get it dry on both sides you can sand the cupped edges off and salvage it.

Is it possible to leave it in place as is?
 

Once dry perhaps you could nail down a thin underlayment (1/4") for leveling and lay new flooring over it.

It actually looks like oak strip flooring, which would be nailed. If that's the case, he'd have to start by chiseling out a length, then lifting the rest with a hefty crowbar. Best bet may be to let it dry for a few weeks, then sand and refinish.

no nail grids present in the pics, appears glued down over a slab to my eye.

Use the aforementioned lino scraper, can be rented also.

Will probably need a 4 or 8" razor blade scraper to cut the glue off down to slab level.

What is a nail grid?

snapped out runs of nails in relatively straight lines.

And you can see them when installed in the t & G?

That looks like T & G which is normally blind nailed down in the groove so you cannot see the heads of the nails.

Update, rented a demo hammer from Home Depot with a tile scraper and went to town.

I cut the wood down into smaller pieces using a circular saw, then used the hammer to scrape it up. Went over for a final pass with the scraper davidmash mentioned to get the random bits of glue up. (I originally started with the scraper, but gave up on it because it got hung up)

https://i.imgur.com/fOC7dt3l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nPWr3Idl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/TbAPrbyl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BY5SFuSl.jpg

On the bright side, I got the good news that almost everything has dried out. Had a friend come by with a moisture detector and we're looking pretty good!