How to Remove Vinyl Tile From Wood Floors
- 1). Remove any baseboard or trim surrounding your tiled floor. Place a pry bar beneath the trim at the location of the nails securing each board in place. Pry up the board, moving down its length to keep from breaking it during removal.
- 2). Locate a loose tile edge anywhere on the surface of your floor. Even a slight rise in a tile edge is sufficient for starting the removal process. If you cannot locate a loose edge, then start with an edge of the tile against the wall, there should be a gap between the wall and the tiling surface.
- 3). Place the edge of a putty knife beneath the chosen tile edge, and pry the edge up farther until you can grab it with your hands. Pull on the edge of the tile, ripping it from the surface of the floor.
- 4). Place a floor scrapper in the opening left by the removed tile with the edge of the scraper beneath the edge of an adjoining tile. Push the scrapper along the floor's surface, pressing beneath the tile to pry it from the surface. Pull the loosened tile away with your hands and discard.
- 5). Continue with the floor scraper, prying up and removing tiles until you've cleared the floor.
- 6). Remove remaining scraps of tile or difficult-to-scrape-up tiles with the aid of a heat gun. Hold the heat gun about 2 inches from the tile and turn it on. Pass the heat gun across the tile in a sweeping motion, applying the heat evenly to the tile and liquefying the glue beneath it. Turn off the heat gun and pull up the loosened tile.
- 7). Strip the glue remaining on the floor with a chemical adhesive stripper. Brush a layer of the stripper onto the top of the glue. Wait the manufacturer's suggested amount of time as the stripper sets in and dissolves the glue. Remove the dissolved glue following the stripper manufacturer's directions.
- 8). Clean the floor with a wooden floor cleaner and a damp mop to remove the residue left from the chemical remover.
