How to remove laminate flooring

Despite the fact that manufacturers give a high-class laminate a long service life, up to 25 years, unforeseen situations can happen at any time. The flooring can fail for various reasons, with time, chips, swellings and peeling of the laminated layer appear on it.

It is for this reason that some buyers choose a laminate not only for strength and abrasion resistance, but also looking at its maintainability. This is necessary to re-mount the coating over a long period. Small defects in the flooring can be easily restored by applying various repair compositions, sealants and impregnations based on natural wax. But, in life, there may be such a problem with the flooring, when dismantling and replacing is the only solution, damaging the laminate to a large extent ...

What you need to cook before starting work

In order to replace or repair the laminated coating, special tools will not be required, however, and special knowledge. Often when moving to a new apartment, they take the laminate with them, as it has been recently laid and has a quite presentable appearance - there are no visible defects.

The process of dismantling in the case of a full or partial replacement is identical, with only one difference, in the first case it is not a question of preserving the lamellas, and in the second it is worth acting very carefully.

Before proceeding with disassembly, prepare the following:

• measuring instruments and pencil;
• a screwdriver or a set of screwdrivers;
• small circular saw;
• mounting suction cup;
• if partial replacement of lamellas is supposed, then it is necessary to prepare the necessary amount of material.

Important! Do not often shift the material from place to place. Despite the fact that a high-quality coating easily transfers this process, the locks begin to wear out. Therefore, the dismantling and installation of a laminate used should only be carried out when absolutely necessary.

As soon as all the tools are assembled and the necessary quantity of material is purchased, the dismantling process can begin.

Dismantling the skirting board

If you plan to completely disassemble the flooring, then begin the process by removing the baseboard. Firstly, it will be easier to disassemble the first row, as it allows access to the technological gap between the wall and the coating. Secondly, it will be possible to carefully disassemble the flooring while preserving a large number of slats, which can later be used elsewhere.

If a modern plastic baseboard is installed on the floor, which was laid with the laminate, then there should not be any problems with dismantling:

• the first to remove the outer corners, which close and firmly fasten the joint of the individual parts of the baseboard profile. This is not difficult to do - take a minus screwdriver, pry off the corner from the bottom and remove it:
• remove the bar that covers the cable channel;
• take a plus screwdriver or a screwdriver and unscrew all the fasteners;
• remove the inner corner.

Advice! If you plan to install the skirting board again, it is better to sign or number all the individual components, so you will not get confused, and assembly of the skirting board will be quick.

Instructions on how to disassemble the board

You need to start disassembling the lamellas from the side where the installation ended during installation. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

• gently lift 1 lamella with a crowbar or chisel. Set it to a position of 45 degrees from the floor. It is in this position that the lock can click off;
• from the side of the end joints we act in the same way, opening the locks;
• lamellas are numbered or signed before stacking.

If, when removing the cover, you scratched the lamella, then running into the store for several items is impractical, just replace the strips that are under the cabinet or bed with scratched ones. AT

In this case. and the laminate with scratches will hide from the eyes of others, and the new one, almost untouched, will be relocated to the most prominent place in the apartment.

When working on the installation of the flooring, it is worth constantly remembering that despite its wear resistance and durability, the material is very brittle to bend, so you need to act with utmost care and caution. Only the process sequence can save the lamellas during dismantling in proper condition.

If only a few panels are damaged on the flooring, then before you start disassembling the flooring, you need to remember how the floor was mounted and is there any way to change only individual elements. There are three types of laminate flooring:

1. Glue - this method makes it impossible to dismantle the coating while maintaining the lamellas. When laying, the board is glued at the seam.
2. Lock - locking the lock occurs in the upright state of the lamellas relative to each other. In this case, the coating is very easy to disassemble while retaining most of the elements.
3. Click - closing the lock occurs after the attachable panel is set at an angle of 45 degrees. This is the most common and easily repaired way to lay laminate.

If several boards are damaged in the flooring, then you can not disassemble the entire flooring, but slightly disrupt the technological process, disassemble only the area that needs to be replaced. In this case, the repair of the coating occurs in the shortest possible time.

Such repairs will require only 2 - 3 hours of your time. The algorithm is as follows:

• the marker will indicate the boundaries of the site that is planned to be replaced;
• then this fragment is sawed with a circular saw. In this case, it is necessary to set the depth of cut correctly, so as not to damage the lock that connects the lamellas;
• Items are carefully removed from the plot. To do this, you can use a chisel or crowbar, picking up 1 part;
• workpieces are pre-cut strictly in size. All cuts should be treated with sealant, so that when moisture does not penetrate, they do not swell;
• install the item on the damaged area;
• if no lamella gets into the sealant, immediately remove it with a damp cloth.

On this, the replacement of the deformed section is over.

Despite the fact that the repair of the flooring seems to be a difficult task, any owner can make it without resorting to the help of specialists. Act carefully and carefully according to the instructions, and then all the lamellas will be suitable for further use.