Powered scraper for removing cork floor?

[DGersic]

I have an area about 6’ x 4’ that I need to remove cork (glued down) tile from the plywood subfloor. I have previously done another area with a hammer and putty knife, and that kinda sucked. Looking for an easier way and tools to buy.

I have a three set of Spyder scrapers for my sawzall. The reviews on these are mixed between awesome and awful. I guess they break easy. They’re cheap, though, so I’ll try them.

I have an oscillating tool. Might work, but the blades seem kinda small for a 30 sq. ft. area.

Other ideas, electric or air powered?

 

[The Cobbler]

I have an Eddy Scraper that would work on that. it's ideal for carpet, vct tile & other types of glue down flooring .

 

[unslow1]

I've seen scraper blades for a Sawzall but found a large scraper at the local Lowe's when I last did one.
We figured this was faster when two of us did a couple of floors.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bully-Tools-Bully-Tools-91300-Floor-Bully-Flooring-Scraper-with-Long-Fiberglass-Handle/5001927865?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOopBoCkrvTCYGvR99epDypHDzEN00aEK_BRMf6HA87r1IZB93Ptioh4

They have garden tools that are similar.

 

[The Cobbler]

maybe a course wire wheel in an angle grinder . just make sure to wear a good mask

 

[RTM]

Decades ago, I rented something like Cobbler mentioned above, trying to take up linoleum, it sucked. Also sucked on ceramic tile. I ended up with a long handled manual scraper, like this, but it wasn't $25 back then (1992ish). Worked better, but still not easy.

Ultimate Scraper, 12-Inch Blade

Ultimate Scrapers feature an incredibly strong, flexible spring-steel blade. This 12-inch wide blade sharpens itself during use, keeping it in working order with minimal maintenance. Each scraper comes with an extra-long powder-coated steel handle.Ultimate Scrapers remove ice and debris faster...

www.amleo.com

 

[DGersic]

I have an Eddy Scraper that would work on that. it's ideal for carpet, vct tile & other types of glue down flooring .

That looks good. HD rents them. Could be the best $60 I’ve spent in a long time.

 

[GeoBruin]

42 in. Long Reach Air Scraper

Amazing deals on this 42In Long Reach Air Scraper at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

You could use a scraper bit in an sds drill as well but you'll pay almost as much as you will for the HF air scraper and it'll be back breaking.

 

[The Cobbler]

That looks good. HD rents them. Could be the best $60 I’ve spent in a long time.

you'll need to buy a blade or 2 for it. they come in packs of 2 , not sure on a retail level tho, they may sell them individual . each blade is sharpened on 2 sides and frankly, an angle grinder is all you need to sharpen them up .

 

[The Cobbler]

trying to take up linoleum, it sucked. Also sucked on ceramic tile.

for sheet vinyl you need to score it into strips with a knife, and for ceramics... they aren't made for that

 

[finn]

Don’t bother with the HF air scraper, off they still sell it.

My ceramic tile laughed at it.

 

[engineer2]

I have HF Chief air hammer and I bought a wide scraping chisel for it on Amazon. Works great on ceramic tile, I imaging it could be sharpened and work on other flooring. Another way to go is buy/rent an SDS tool with a floor scraping tool. The floor scraping tools typically have a thin flexible metal blade and might be better for soft flooring material.

 

[Spareparts]

I put a wooden handle on my heat gun, the wife heated the tile up and I used a long handle floor scraper
on the cork tile and it peeled right up. That was an area about twice your size and a couple of hrs. and done.
The nice thing was the heat softened the cork up and it peeled up in one piece not broken up in chunks.

 

[RTM]

for sheet vinyl you need to score it into strips with a knife, and for ceramics... they aren't made for that

It was tile squares.

Knew it wasn't made for ceramics, but I had it for four hours minimum, so what the heck.

 

[dyermullet]

What about a 6" wide scraper blade for a sds max hammer? I have used that on tile and thinset.

 

[larry4406]

At the day job, the flooring contractor had to replace a glue down engineered hardwood floor. They cut the floor into small squares then used a vibrating hammer type tool with a scraper blade to pop up the floor remnant. Did an excellent job with virtually zero subfloor damage.

I am told this tool and scraper blade are used to remove resilient tile from concrete.

The small square approach was key to limiting subfloor damage.

 

[Dave455]

If you have an oscillating multi tool you already have the solution! Use it, together with a scraper blade.


I’ve done similar jobs, and with any sort of soft tile or glue, the oscillating scraper is the way to go.

Although the blade looks small, you will probably get through 6’ x 4’ relatively easily.

If you had a harder tile material, or more importantly a harder floor, then an SDS Drill in hammer mode together a curved chisel, would be the way to go, but for cork on plywood, definitely the multitool scraper.

The scraper blade on the SDS drill shown above by larry4406 is interesting - I haven’t seen one of those before, but I think on a wooden floor anything with a back and forth motion will tend to dig in.

 

[theoldwizard1]

My son removed tile adhered to concrete from a much larger area just using an air hammer/chisel and a very wide blade.

 

[bcradio]

What about a 6" wide scraper blade for a sds max hammer? I have used that on tile and thinset.

This is definitely the way to go, but expensive to buy. You could probably rent though. I have done thousands of sq ft with mine.

 

[jad3675]

That looks good. HD rents them. Could be the best $60 I’ve spent in a long time.

+1 on this. I removed 160 sqft of glue down linoleum with one rented from HD. Hardest part was getting the scraper in and out of the car.

 

[gizardlizard]

Wall paper steamer. No more than 30 seconds per spot. One person steaming while one scrapes. Goes quick.

 

[tak1313]

I don't know how big/small your needs are, but you can get a scraper bit for sds hammers. Caveat - I have never used one, but did use an sds hammer with a wide bit to remove ceramic tile, and it worked great (it was a Makita bit specially made for removing ceramic tile, being a little wider than normal "chisel" bits with a more pronounced curve).

 

[DGersic]

What better way to spend a snowy afternoon than to go rent a floor scraper…? Got 14” of snow last night, spent 3 1/2 hours with my snowblower. Plows hadn‘t done my street yet. So 4x4 engaged and off to the tool rental store I went.

Cork floor:



This may have been original to the house. It was under the trim, and otherwise seems to have been there a long time. I tried fist the Spyder scraper. It works, but was slow going. I tried heat gun and scraper, which didn’t work at all, but did set off the smoke alarms, so that was fun. I tried the oscillating tool and scraper blade, and that didnt accomplish anything at all. I didn’t try steam, but I don’t think that would have worked.



The area is small and the tool is large. I decided to use it to get the bulk of the middle, leaving the edges and doorways. It mostly worked, though not as well as I’d hoped. It tended to get stuck on pieces of tile that it picked up, or any nail head it could find. It also managed to dig in to the plywood, where It would then get stuck.



I used the small Spyder blade around the edges and doorways. It works ok, but does beat the **** out of your arms. Despite claims of these being weak and breaking easily, I didn’t break it.




And it’s done.

 

[bcradio]

Glad you got that done.

An SDS Max scraper would have had you done in under an hour... for next time you need to do a floor removal.

 

[dogdog]

If it is not a huge space, Lowe’s have this spyder brand tool that have a set of scraper attached to a reciprocal saw, would work wonders and cheaper. Otherwise that sds max attachment would work too. I have the hf manual scraper on a long handle

 

[DGersic]

If it is not a huge space, Lowe’s have this spyder brand tool that have a set of scraper attached to a reciprocal saw, would work wonders and cheaper. Otherwise that sds max attachment would work too. I have the hf manual scraper on a long handle

Yep.



They're rumored to be somewhat fragile, but I didn’t break it. They do work, and they also beat the **** out of your arms. It’s like having a saw blade that gets jammed in the cut. Lower speeds worked better than higher, but are also more violent.