Floating floor - remove or carpet on top?

[Stangman]

Mother has just bought a new home which has floating floors in the long hallway, kitchen, dining and family area. In my opinion they look fantastic, but mum is not terribly stable on her legs anymore and says she will slip over when walking on it.

She is determined to change to pink carpet - her favourite, and vinyl in the kitchen. LOL!

Does anybody know how to successfully remove the floating floors without doing any damage to them? I can re use them in an investment property.

Or as an alternative could we just carpet over the top of the floating floors?



muStangman.

 

[DaveM]

Such a waste.. pink carpet with kitchen lino.

Unless the boards are secret nailed, removing it easy. Take off all the scotia from the edges, and start lifting them from one corner out. They will just come apart easy as they are tongue and groove.

Note that you will want to try both sides of the room to start lifting from to see which side they finished laying the flooring at, if you start at the wrong side removing them will be difficult without damaging as the tongue and groove wont release due to the weight of the next board.

 

[geoffw]

The floor itself may be easily removed but the beading (the edging around the kitchen area) may be glued on.

It looks as if the skirting board is hiding the edge of the floating floor in the other places. I don't know, but I suspect that will be ok to be left in place with the new carpet. But the beading will probably be too high to be left intact when vinyl is installed.

 

[DaveM]

geoff you must be getting old, I can clearly see scotia around the skirting boards

 

[geoffw]

I'd not heard the term scotia before. From what I can see when I looked it up, it's the same stuff as beading. There are places where it's called scotia beading.

When I had flooring put in last month the flooring buys called it beading. But things have probably changed since then ;-)

 

[willair]

Mother has just bought a new home which has floating floors in the long hallway, kitchen, dining and family area. In my opinion they look fantastic, but mum is not terribly stable on her legs anymore and says she will slip over when walking on it.

She is determined to change to pink carpet - her favourite, and vinyl in the kitchen. LOL!

Does anybody know how to successfully remove the floating floors without doing any damage to them? I can re use them in an investment property.

Or as an alternative could we just carpet over the top of the floating floors?



muStangman.

Maybe just use a bit of forward thinking,that's a high end looking floor would be a total waste of money to replace it,just do what your Mun want's
because who's to say the next in line to buy this property may not like the floor plan,a very easy job to rip up the carpet as opposed cost factor wise too laying a new floor,and deprecate it over the next 40 years..imho..

 

[geoffw]

Willair- would putting in carpet on top mean that you would have to have to nail stuff into the floating floor?

 

[willair]

Willair- would putting in carpet on top mean that you would have to have to nail stuff into the floating floor?

Maybe not Geoff,a mate has a carpet sales refit business but they are carpet tiles,i think they use a prenail system for carpet that they prenail the boarders then reset the carpet into the prenail sections,i will ask him
carpet laying is a hard heavy lifting job,you only find out once you try and lift the entire rool out of the van just how hard that line of employment can be,,imho..

 

[attrill]

I had a floating floor I wanted to cover in a unit and measured up the area and had a carpet made up with the edges trimmed and rolled it into place. hard to tell that it's not a fitted carpet and gives the next owner the option of having either.

 

[Hypnotic Cat]

I second what attrill says. I did a similar thing when I rented out my PPOR for 12 months and didn't want my newly polished wooden floors to be damaged by tenants. I purchased a roll of carpet which had the edges sewn to fit the hallway and lounge room. I later sold off the carpet when I moved back in. The advantage of this was no nailing down and absolutely no damage done to my floors.

 

[MRCCON]

I'd not heard the term scotia before. From what I can see when I looked it up, it's the same stuff as beading. There are places where it's called scotia beading.

When I had flooring put in last month the flooring buys called it beading. But things have probably changed since then ;-)

It's technically not scotia, scotia has the same profile as a standard cove cornice.

It's technically quad.

 

[MRCCON]

I know it's prefinished, but a floor sander might still be able to coat it in a non slip clear coat, another option.

 

[Stangman]

Thanks to all who replied.

Time is of the essence as settlement on mum`s home is only a bit over 2 weeks away and we hope to settle on the new home on the same date.

Although we like the suggestion of edging the carpet and laying the carpet over the top of the floating floors there will not be time enough to have that done.

So the decision has been made to remove the floating floors completely. An investment property has just become vacant which desperately needs new flooring so I can make good use of the floating floors. Appreciate the tip from DaveM to check both sides to find out which is the better side to start removing the floors.

Thankfully the beading is only 12mm so the carpet with underfelt should sit higher than the beading. In the kitchen area where mum will have the vinyl installed we can either change the kicker boards if necessary or just fit some 19mm beading.

Mum`s home sold within one week of being on the market - pink carpet throughout, so when she moves on from the new home the next owner can deal with the carpet.

Thanks again.

muStangman.

 

[fernfurn]

You could ask the new owners if they hate the carpet and will be ripping it up. You could then reuse it in your Mum's (supposedly) smaller unit. (I am trying to do a big laughing smile but all I get is a )

 

[Stangman]

You could ask the new owners if they hate the carpet and will be ripping it up. You could then reuse it in your Mum's (supposedly) smaller unit. (I am trying to do a big laughing smile but all I get is a )

fernfurn, We know what you mean We all get a kick out of mum`s choice of pink carpet

But the plot thickens! Had a call from mum today. She has already had a carpet rep call around to her place with samples and has chosen a blue/grey colour. Not at all sure about that though. Mum wants me to call around tomorrow to see a sample the rep left with her. Apparently the lighter colours remind her of Retirement Village carpet. Hmmm

I am thinking a Mushroomy beige would be better. Looks like we will be visiting some carpet shops this week.

muStangman.

 

[malaga]

Buy her a pair of velcro slippers and keep the floor.

 

[geoffw]

A good thought. However Velcro requires two parts. So you still need to stick one part to the floor, leaving you in exactly the same position.

However I'm sure that Skater could sell her an excellent set of skates to get around on that shiny floor very quickly.

 

[wylie]

Buy her a pair of velcro slippers and keep the floor.

Cannot help but think of Kath's wedding on Kath & Kim and her "sticky dots" that caused so much mayhem .

What a shame to cover that floor, but the needs of the person having to live on it do have to come first. I also would look at having a carpet cut to suit and edged so that the floor isn't damaged. But I guess a carpet that is not fixed down could be just as dangerous for someone not sure of foot, and also a carpet sitting on the floor would likely leave marks anyway? I know our timber floors loss their shine where a carpet sat for long periods.

Why not go for a colour that matches the rest of the house (didn't I see taupe carpets elsewhere or am I looking at a different listing?) rather than pink. Pink will limit anything else done in the house, and also severely limit resale if ever that is an option.

 

[carllarz]

I second what attrill says. I did a similar thing when I rented out my PPOR for 12 months and didn't want my newly polished wooden floors to be damaged by tenants. I purchased a roll of carpet which had the edges sewn to fit the hallway and lounge room. I later sold off the carpet when I moved back in. The advantage of this was no nailing down and absolutely no damage done to my floors.

This is definitely the way to go!

You never know what the future will bring and you definitely wouldnt want to waste a floor like that.

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