Removal of glued on lauan

I'm desperate for advice on what to do!! Here's my problem. My entire upstairs is an old hardwood that I originally wanted to cover with carpet and/or vinyl tiles. I have since changed my mind. I want to sand and refinish the hardwood. My only problem is that I have one sheet of lauan that was nailed AND glued to the hardwood. How can I get it off without ruining the hardwood underneath? I'm pretty sure this idiot used liquid nails to glue it down. Will removing the lauan ruin my hardwood? I do plan on renting a sander and refinishing the floors to their natural beauty. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Welcome to the forums! You know I have to ask......why in the world would anyone apply luan to a hardwood floor surface in order to install carpet? It just doesn't make sense.

Have you tried to pry up the luan with a flat scraper? In doing so, it will either pop up or remain securely fastened due to the glue. If it were me, I would buy a ramslammer type tool from box store orange and try to scrape up the luan. Yes, you may damage the hardwood if you don't keep it perfectly flat, but scratching is better than gouging it. Hopefully his glue is swirled on and not solid like one would do in applying VCT tile. Use a low attack with the tool so it's bit is going under the edge of the luan and not digging into the hardwood.

Using an orbital sander may give a better finish as opposed to a drum sander, but you'll need to wait until the luan is up to determine the extent of damage. Keep us posted and if we can help in any way, let us know.

 

That's when you would like to find the person who did that and just knock the **** out of them. There is no reason to ever glue underlayment down.

 

Wonder if he can get the luan to delaminate on its own by wetting it either with water or some neutral solvent that won't hurt the oak. He really only has to get the top layer off initially to expose all the nail heads. Wet wood is a lot easier to scrape than dry. Any thoughts? I know there are solvents to release glued down carpet that you pour on and let set.

 

Thanks for the advice! The one piece of lauan is glued and nailed down in my bathroom, which used to be my son's bedroom, but I converted it to a bathroom so I'd have more space. The guy who did the bathroom install laid that one piece up against a wall and it also goes underneath my vanity. So, when I do this, I'll need to remove the vanity temporarily to get it all off.

Yes, I've tried to pry a corner up...that's when I realized it was glued down!! The glue is swirled, so I'm glad to hear that that'll be easier to get off. The reason he started putting the lauan down was because he told me that I couldn't keep the hardwood in a bathroom due to moisture...??? IDK! And he told me that I needed another type of flooring.

I have not tried a flatscraper yet because everyone tells me that it'll splinter and make a huge mess and not come up easily, if at all. Since this is my only bathroom and the vanity needs to be temporarily removed when I do this, I figured I'd wait until I had a break from school. I'm a teacher. I'm thinking of attempting this over Easter break. I've never even picked up a flatscraper before, but I'm determined to do this. I'm collecting as much advice as I can and I'm all over the internet looking for DIY instructions/videos. This is when I came across this site. My plan is to sand and refinish the hardwood too.

Thanks so much for any and all advice!! Much appreciated!!

Now, I have a really dumb question...and I tell my students all the time that there's NO dumb question. LOL What is a ramslammer? And, what do you mean by box store orange???

 

Sorry, it was my copy of the pix was not available when I posted. Here's what I am talking about.