# glue down wood



## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

Any easy way to rip that stuff out? I've done a few, none have been easy, but I'm on a particularly tough one that's glued down with urethane. Gnarly stuff ...

The floor scrapers suck. So far, the best we've come up with is a masonry chisel ground down like a wood chisel.

We tried the air hammer, but we couldn't locate a blade wider than an inch today. Any way we go at it, it's tough.


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## loneframer (Feb 13, 2009)

Have you tried a roofing shovel? Pneumatic scraper? Heat gun and 5-6" taping knife?

Is it glue down only, or glued and stapled?


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## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

loneframer said:


> Have you tried a roofing shovel? Pneumatic scraper? Heat gun and 5-6" taping knife?
> 
> Is it glue down only, or glued and stapled?


We've tried a pneumatic air hammer, and it worked ok, but we can't find a wide enough blade - well Tony couldn't ...

The floor scrapers we have are similar to a roofing shovel, but they are floor scrapers with about a 6-8" blade. We found that they work better dull so they don't bite into the glue when you're sliding it across the floor - but it's still slow and tough. We got new blade for one, and it was dull. I thought hey - maybe there's a reason they don't have a grind on them! So I tried it, and then we ground the grind off the other one 

The heat gun I don't think will work as fast as hitting the chisel. It may work on the glue, but it's busting up the wood that's the issue. Once that's busted up, I've got some 4" t handled razor scrapers that will tear the glue off in short order. basically like the wall strippers at home cheapo - same blades, but the t-handle holder is much more heavy duty.

I'll try the roofing shovels tomorrow, Julio has a few in his van, they might be the ticket to keep from sticking in the glue!


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## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

It's urethane glue on concrete slab


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## RhodesHardwood (Jun 28, 2010)

They have those electrical scraper things. Not exactly sure what they are called, but I have seen them for rent at many tool rental shops. We did a job for a guy who worked for a company they made one of them. He has been waiting to hear from me when we come up with a glued floor that needs torn out. He says he will let us use it on a job, if he can send people over to do a photo shoot. When that day comes, I will try to remember to post back on this thread with an update of how it went. Good luck


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## adamsb (Aug 25, 2005)

The best luck I've had is take a skill saw and gauge it the thickness of the wood and make several passes with it perpendicular to the way the wood is running about 3 or 4 inches apart. Then get you a jack hammer and get after it. We use a big Hilti 930. I think it's a 930, could be 980?? You can rent them from home depot. We own ours, but renting is certainly an option. Ask for a chisel bit and a flex bit. The bolts on the flex bit loosen up a lot and break but it works well. Good luck


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## astor (Dec 19, 2008)

adams said:


> The best luck I've had is take a skill saw and gauge it the thickness of the wood and make several passes with it perpendicular to the way the wood is running about 3 or 4 inches apart. Then get you a jack hammer and get after it. We use a big Hilti 930. I think it's a 930, could be 980?? You can rent them from home depot. We own ours, but renting is certainly an option. Ask for a chisel bit and a flex bit. The bolts on the flex bit loosen up a lot and break but it works well. Good luck


 That is pretty much how I do it. Thanks God,haven't seen floor that I need to cut 3-4" apart though, mostly 8" to 12" is good for pieces flying.I use semi permanent (blue) nut-bolt liquid drops-whatever you call them- to prevent bolts get loose.


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## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

I've seen air powered scrapers, but they require a LOT of air. Haven't seen the electric ones, have to check them out next time I have to rip out glue down.

The roofing shovels worked in some spots, but not so well in others. The 4" chisel and 3lb hand sledge was the most consistent. Now we're heat gun / scraping the glue off. What a clusterfudge!

Think a big rotary hammer would do instead of a jackhammer? I'm looking at getting one in the tool box for other things anyway ... Thinking the circular saw / hammer thing will work well.

The air hammer was pretty loud, and we still haven't located a wide bit for it - ridiculous, every other time I look, I see them in every air tool section!

Well, thanks for the tips guys - it's all over but the crying now


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## KnottyWoodwork (May 23, 2010)

Makes it quick and easy...


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## hawaii (Feb 13, 2009)

Cutting narrow areas help. I would cut the floor into one foot squares and start pulling with whatever worked so far, chances are that it will start coming up in a bigger pieces, i have done it many times and every times i cut it first.Make sure you skill saw blade is precisely set no matter if it over a concrete slab or wooden subfloor.As a matter of fact if it is concrete then that's OK you will know right away when your blade hits the concrete but make sure you are cutting deep enough the whole idea is that the squares of one foot comes out because nothing is holding it on the sides.
If it is over wooden subfloor ( I can not imagine that someone would glue down flooring over wood but sometimes it happens) make sure you are not cutting too deep you can destroy the sub floor and get into deep problems in the future.


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## KnottyWoodwork (May 23, 2010)

hawaii said:


> If it is over wooden subfloor ( I can not imagine that someone would glue down flooring over wood but sometimes it happens) make sure you are not cutting too deep you can destroy the sub floor and get into deep problems in the future.


I glue down wood to wood all the time. It's a standard for the wider planks. The majority of work I did when I first started was wide plank glue down, whenever I work on one now it brings a smile.


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## hawaii (Feb 13, 2009)

Oh yes I see my mistake, glue down the wide planks of course, but I can not imagine that this would be hard to pull out, the solid board that is wider then 5 inch will come up from the subfloor no problem , will damage the ply wood but i can not imagine that there would be problem with demo and again my technique , cutting the square edge will help a lot.


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