Removing cork tiles

Has anybody had experience at removing cork tiles? Can they be done manually (without many many hours labour), or should a professional be called?

Thanks

Hi Geoff,

Whats the under the tiles? Masonite/hardboard on timber or concrete?

Timber floors are easy! I find the edge and with wrecking bar lift up hardboard and tiles in one.

For concrete I've found a garden spade with the edge sharpened works well. Hopefully the glue has not hardened and the tiles will come up easy or you'll need to hire a concrete polisher to finish off.

regards, Michael Croft

Thanks Michael,

It's a concrete floor, the place is about 15 years old.

If the glue has hardened, it may be easier (and even cheaper) to pay the people who will be putting the floors down extra- they would probably have the equipment. I just didn't want to pay for something I could do myself.

Hi Geoff,

There may be a solvent that will soften the glue to ease removal but I don't know of any. Give a flooring place that specialises in cork/slate etc a ring and ask them how to do it or how they do it.

Michael Croft

Hi geoff

Have you considered going over the top of the tiles?

As they are on concrete the gain of removing will be minimal.

Providing the cork tiles are sound & well adhered to the concrete.

Good point OPM,

If the covering is to be carpet, floating timber or vinyl leave the cork in place (for vinyl it will need to be in good condition). If the new covering is to be tiles or similar removal is probably required.

regards, MC

The problem sith covering existing tiles is that I'm covering both kitchen (cork tiles) and lounge (carpet) with the wood look vinyl. When the carpet is lifted, there will be a floor height difference between the two floors.

But thanks for the idea!

Geoff

I haven't removed cork tiles before but I should think you won't have a problem just using a simple scraper. The kind that comes on a long handle for scraping down concrete floors. I got one a couple of months ago to get rid of splashed render and other foreign bits of concrete stuck to a concrete driveway and it does the job easily. About $40 at the hardware.


Regards

Adrian See

Thanks Adrian.

My worry was with the glue which may be hardened- as Michael Croft mentioned.

I was really leaning towards the vinyl wood look stuff- which would have really needed the smooth floor- but then-
.Estimates for the vinyl from the place which gave the best price (by far) did not write down their estimates (I should know by now!), and estimates were based on a huge mistake in estimating floor areas. Estimates from another place on self installed floating floor (with correct areas) came in at $1000 under the adjusted vinyl estimates ($40 psm for self installed, vs $75 psm installed).

The area is about 31 sqm. Have I missed something here?

$35 psm, about $1000 in total, for what seems to be a straightforward DIY job. Even for a comparitive klutz (with access to a dropsaw and a little advice from someone who has done it once before). Estimates are for one to two days work.

New Dad Soon's comments especially seem to favour the wood floor.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Another idea you might like to consider.

I use 15mm hardwood ply as flooring.Very economical. Very few joins so it makes a place look bigger. Present unit has been down 3 yrs and last place 6 yrs.

You do need a good floor sanding person though and a level base to start with. Can go over comcrete or chipboard.

People always comment but 99% don't pick what it is!

ani

Hi ani,

Yes ply works and can look good and is relatively cheap and hardwearing. I've used it too and it came in 9,12 or 19mm thicknesses with T&G edges from Carter Harvey Holt (timber processors).

The other floating floor I've used on concrete is 'structafloor' with a cosmetic face, about $45 a sheet (3.6 x .9 m). Sanded and polished it looked great. The lounge, entry and corridor cost less than $500 laid on corro cardbord and finished . Tough and didn't show the marks and scratches like the ply - also insulated cold floor. Disadvantage is that it is only available 19mm thick.

Regards, Michael Croft

Hi Michael

Thanks for you info about "structafloor". I will certainly have a look at that next time.

I use "Big River Timbers" ply. It comes in about 10 thicknesses from memory.

Used Blackbutt in first place and had it sanded again & repolished as it had worn a bit in the kitchen area. It came up like new.

In this place I have Jarrah. When I was initially looking Big River had a much wider choice of veneers. They will also post you samples and are very helpful when you phone.

Cheers
ani

Hi Geoff,

In a recently completed reno, I had a similar challenge with 3 different floor coverings at different heights that looked crappy and were to be replaced with 1 covering.

I had 2 installers come out and quote and asked them for a breakdown of costs in their formal quotation like this:

Number of square metres measured: x metres + 5% (wastage)

Floor preparation: $
Black plastic: $
Underlay: $
Floorboards: $
Floorboard laying: $
Glue: $
Skirting and quarterboard: $

When the quotes came back, the floor preparation and laying costs were around $1000 EACH for about 33 square metres. The floor preparation was going to be so expensive as there were 30 year old green lino tiles on the concrete pad. I ended up hiring a kanga hammer with a broad blade and a narrow blade for 3 days, the broad blade getting up the lino tiles, the narrow blade getting up the ceramic tiles, at a cost of $150.

I ended up laying the laminate boards myself and installing new skirting boards, but be warned.....it is not as easy as the guys on TV make out, they do it all the time.

Glenn

Thanks all for responses.

Now it looks as if the carpet was also glued to the floor.

I won't have access to the place for a few days, but I'll definitely be trying the spade as first option. If that proves to be slow or difficult, I'll be trying something like Glenn mentioned.I'm hoping the skirting will not be an issue, given the carpet and cork tiles already in place.

I coincidentally received a Kennards catalogue at my address yesterday- out of the blue. It must have been that drill two years ago. It looks as if they have a variety of equipment available should I need it.

I've just found out another property, with a nice Tasmanian Ash floor will be coming vacant soon. The catalogue had a good section on preparing floors- http://www.kennards.com.au/howto/index.html

There's a few other articles in there, but that one looks the most useful.

Hi Geoff,

If possible, leave the old skirting on as it can be a bugger to remove without destroying as they have probably been nailed into dowel.

Also, if a decent tradesman installed them in the first place, the bottoms may have been scribed to match any irregularities in the floor level.

Good luck

Glenn

And now ouch and double ouch.

I've been to the property, and had my first attempt at the carpet and tiles.

The cork tiles can be removed with a spade, but it is a high energy operation, and I'm not quite that fit. I figure I can remove about 2 per square metre per hour that way- including rest breaks. At that rate, I'll pay the quoted $10 psm- it will be worth it. I'll be trying a couple of other manual methods tomorrow to see if they work better.

The bad bit is the glued carpet. It was rubber backed, and pulling it off leaves all the rubber backing on the floor. Another flat spade operation, and one which takes time and energy. 60 sq m at 2 sqm per hour (it looks to be the same sort of rate as the cork tiles so far) will be a bigger job than I'm capable of.

Though I might consider the services of the unemployed tenant in the cottage next door- my cottage too

If I can't find a more efficient manual alternative, I'll be looking at either hire equipment (the Kennards catalogue has a few promising leads)

But the bummer is that both the carpet and cork tiles were only installed to the skirting boards- and there is no room under the skirting boards for floating floor gaps (thanks for the hint Glenn).

So I'm going to either have skirting boards lifted (probably before the painter comes on Sunday) or go for the vinyl wood look strips- there does not appear to be a self install options, and the cost for 32 sqm is $2400 vs $1400 for self installed floating floor.

Any thouights or suggestions please?

Hi Geoff,

How about laying your own laminate floor and leave a 10mm gap all the way around next to the skirting board.

Then, buy some mdf quarter board and attach it to the skirting board with liquid nails

If the skirting boards are painted and not stained, I would paint them again, paint the quarter board, install the floor and then fit the quarter board, run a bead of silicon along the join between the skirting - quarter board, paint over the silicon and BOOMBA, there you have a lovely new floor!

Glenn

Hi Geoff

I have seen a number of floating floors done in the fashion that Glenn mentioned.

They look great done properly.

The critical area is where the flooring meets the doorstops and doorjams.

It is hear where a strait and level cut is critical, so that the flooring slides under for a neat fit.

Thanks for those responses.

The flooring people do supply "beading"- which is a tight angled strip, which covers gaps of less that 10mm. If that looks OK, I'll stick with it, otherwsie I'll go for the extra skirting.

I sepnt another few hours trying to get rid of the carpet foam backing and cork tiles with spades, chisels and whatnot. It was very tiring- and after two hours, I'l only removed 3 spq of foam backing. So I did end hirin a floor striper. At $85 per day (and as it turned out, a half day hire would have been sufficient) it did a fantastic job. An a little over three hours, all the foam backing and all the cork tiles were removed- in a much cleaner way than I'd done manually.

It has a single blade in front, effectively about a 16cm chisel, with a strong mother behind it. It removed the faom backing like butter, the cork tiles, well, maybe like a hard cheese.

I still have to do edges where it did not reach- but that's a tiny job in comparison.

another gold tip for the adding value forum

thanks for doing all the hard work geoff so we can benefit from your experience