How to Remove Part of an Engineered Hardwood Floor

A room with hardwood floors.
  • 3-6 hours
  • Beginner
  • 0-200
What You'll Need
Pry bar
Circular saw
Tape
Chisel
Hammer
Scraper
What You'll Need
Pry bar
Circular saw
Tape
Chisel
Hammer
Scraper

If you need to take up a portion of your engineered hardwood floor, you should be able to do so without damaging the rest of the flooring. People sometimes need to do this in order to change only a portion of the flooring to something else. Here are the basics of how to take up a part of an engineered hardwood floor.

Step 1 - Mark the Area

Before you get started taking up the portion of the engineered hardwood floor, you need to first mark the area. By doing this you will be clear on which portion of the wood needs to come up and which portion needs to stay. Put a line of tape down the joint of the hardwood. You need to put the piece of tape directly up against the edge that will be taken up. The piece of tape will also help protect the edge of the piece that is staying on the floor. This process could potentially damage your hardwood so you want to make sure that you take every precaution.

Step 2 - Cut into the Floor

The next thing that you need to do is cut into the floor with a circular saw. For this part of the process, you have to be very careful. In most cases, you should cut directly into the piece that is next to the line of tape. You do not necessarily want to cut directly into the tongue, because this will damage the part that is staying on the floor. However, you should cut into the floor so that you can start pulling it up.

Step 3 - Pry Up the Floor

If you have engineered hardwood that is nailed down to a wood subfloor, this job will be quite a bit easier. In this case, you should be able to pry the boards up with the pry bar. The boards should come up off of the wood subfloor relatively easily. You need to get the pry bar around the edge of the board. You may need to take off the baseboards for this process if you need help getting under the hardwood. In some cases, you can get the pry bar down under the wood where you made the cut with the saw.

Step 4 - Chisel

If you have engineered hardwood that is glued down to a concrete subfloor, this process will be a little bit more difficult. The glue adheres the wood to the floor quite well and it will generally come up in pieces. You can try to pry it up with a pry bar, but you may need to chisel it with a hammer and chisel.

Step 5 - Scraping the Adhesive

When dealing with glued down engineered hardwood, you will need to also scrape up the adhesive. For this part of the process use a scraper and start working. This part of the job will be very difficult and could take some time to complete.