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amaryllis52

what's on my floor and how to remove it?

amaryllis52
11 years ago

Any ideas about what is on my kitchen floor and how (or whether) to remove it? I was planning to strip a kitchen floor down to a decent surface then put on peel & stick vinyl tiles. After taking off two layers of vinyl and adhesive, I thought I had a good enough surface but a local handyman says I should go down to the plywood underlayment and put 1/4" plywood over that.

-What is on the floor? The top layer is a thin material with a smooth surface, a blue backing, and a middle consisting of gray fibers like cardboard. This is glued to a lower layer of some rough material that crumbled when heated, with a cardboard-like backing. The handyman thinks I have 2 layers of old linoleum from the 1950s-60s, but I don't know.

-Do I have to remove this stuff? I thought I could put new tile on top of what I now have, since the old vinyl tile was stuck to it pretty well. The top layer is discolored but it's not sticky at all, though I would need to glue some of it down a little better and patch a bit. Maybe a floor primer would make it a decent surface? (Covering all with thin plywood isn't an option.)

-How do you remove this stuff? If I wanted to strip the remaining stuff (whatever it is), what's the best way?

Thanks.

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