Removing Karndean Flooring

[MysteryM]

We are in the middle of purchasing a house that has a lot of karndean flooring, however the floor is in a bad state and we want to replace it with porcelain floor tiles.

How much of a chore is it to get rid of the karndean floor? Will it lift up without any problems? My main concern is the adhesive as ideally i'd like to get back to the concrete underneath. The tiling is in a huge kitchen and spans into the hall which all needs to come up.

The house is about 5 years old and I'm looking for a showroom finish with the tiling.

Thanks in advance.

 

[crazydaze]

You'll need to lift the Karndean to fit tiles so it's got to come up. It should come up easy with a long handled scraper and a sharp blade. There will be a fair amount of prep required to lay the new tiles once the Karndean is up. Assuming it's a concrete subfloor, the floor will need to be primered and screeded before the tiles can be fitted. A wood subfloor means the Karndean should have been laid on Ply, you'll probably have to uplift all this too and re-ply the subfloor before fitting your new tiles.

 

[MysteryM]

Thanks for the reply, the floor tiles are definitely sitting on a concreate sub floor (its a new build kitchen and hall).

I'll try and lift the floor and see if I can get back to the concreate sub floor so that the tiler has a normal surface to work from.

 

[crazydaze]

The karndean should lift fairly cleanly, if laid correctly, the subfloor should have been screeded already however the adhesive residue will be left behind, so probably will require a primer and re-screed prior to fitting tiles.

 

[lymmranger]

.........If you have a "hot air gun" they can help "soften" the adhesive

...maybe

 

[MysteryM]

No worries, I'm going to ask the tiler to come over and check it out