Do I need a special tool to pull up my laminate floor?

Question

My laminate floor is lifting and peaking in a few places. From what I can tell the pieces are to long and need to be pulled up, cut shorter and put back down to lay flat. Do I need any special tools to pull up the flooring and cut it? It does not look like it is glued down. Any tips on how I should go about this.

Answer 1

the previous answer seems to be describing perimeter glued sheet vinyl. you are describing a floating laminate floor. the flooring planks are snapped together. before 'disassembling' the floor, pull up the moulding covering the ends. you can cut the long boards in place with a handsaw(you might have to take the handle off to get close enough to the wall), a jamb saw or Japanese backsaw work well, or a rotary type end grinder with a fine blade. make sure you tape over the cut line to prevent chipping. it doesn't have to be beautiful, it will be covered with the moulding. the handsaw method will take some time and elbow grease, but easier than pulling up the floor. otherwise, you will have to unsnap all boards up to the long ones, cut ends and snap them all back together.

Hope that helps. Good Luck!

Answer 2

lf its not glued down, your in luck. lt might just be glued around the edges. You can buy or rent a floor scraper. Some are as long as a broom,with a wide blade, 14'' to 16'' wide, and some are handheld, 3'' to 4'' wide. lf its all glued, get a wide one, the edges only a small one will do. lf its on plywood, scrape at a 45 degree angle. Get all of it off because prep determinds the quality of your finished product. lf its a real big floor, you can rent an electric floor scraper. Good luck ! Tip' Prepaint and put shoemold around cabinets and baseboard after new floor is installed to prevent new floor from lifting.

Answer 3

You won't need a large scraper to lift it as it is not glued to the subfloor.  Hopefully it is the snap together type and you should be able to lift it out, piece by piece, shorten the pieces and relay it.  the only thing holding it down is its own weight and the molding around the edges.  Remove the molding, then start at one end and start disassembling it.  If you are careful you might not break off any of the tongue and groove tabs, if some of the snap together tabs do break off you can lay a bead of glue (good wood glue) between them as you relay it.  You might have to replace the thin foam padding under the flooring if it gets damaged while removing the floor.