Tearing Up Hardwood Floors

By cutting the boards into small sections removal will go faster and smoother.

Tearing up hardwood floors.

Sweep the sawdust wood chips and other debris into small piles then use a shop vac to suction them up. Okay so the fastest way to remove old hardwood floors is to cut the boards into smaller sections. Take down the tarps roll them up carefully and move them outside to be cleaned or thrown away. Make sure to set your saw blade to the thickness of your hardwood flooring so as to not damage the sub flooring.

Pry up the first few boards to give yourself room to work. Removing hardwood floors in one of the houses we renovated. If necessary go over the area again with a vacuum or mop to clear away any especially fine dust remaining. We used several techniques that we found very uncomfortable.

You can cut each section into approximately one to two feet wide portions. This is helpful because hardwood planks are all different lengths and make it really tough to remove quickly. So cutting them into smaller pieces of wood makes it easier to pry up.