How to Pull Up a Vinyl Floor

Pulling up old vinyl flooring can be a real challenge because it was designed to stay stuck to the floor. It will be easier if you heat up the vinyl to soften the glue underneath and make the tiles easier to scrape up. There are several ways to heat up vinyl flooring, but one of the easiest is to go to your local hardware store and buy a heat gun, which is similar to hair a dryer but produces more heat.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Heat gun
• Heavy metal scraper
• Heavy canvas gloves

1. Put on your gloves. Turn on your heat gun and, working near any edge of the room, and move it slowly in a side-to-side motion about a foot from the floor. Continue for two or three minutes until you see the vinyl tiles starting to soften and curl up along the edges.

2. Turn off the heat gun and set it aside. Immediately work your scraper under the area that's starting to come up, pushing and scraping in both directions to free the tiles.

3. When the vinyl cools and it becomes difficult to continue peeling up the floor, put down the scraper and heat the next section of floor with the heat gun. Repeat the process until the whole vinyl surface is up.

4. When all the vinyl flooring is removed, go back over the floor with your scraper to remove any remaining glue, re-heating as necessary.

Tips & Warnings

• Much older vinyl tiles may contain asbestos and should be tested before you attempt to remove them. Talk to you local hardware store. The vinyl may still be hot when you pull it up and discard it, so keep the gloves on and use caution. Make sure the room is well-ventilated when you heat the vinyl.

References

• Removing vinyl flooring.