How do you remove glued t molding from ceramic floor tile?

2 years ago

My vinyl plank floors were installed without being leveled so the installer is coming to remove and level the floors. My question is can the t molding be removed from adjoining ceramic tile without causing damage to the tile floor?

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Comments (2)

millworkman
2 years ago
Maybe, maybe not. I would probably break it free and the carefully remove the smaller pieces.
SJ McCarthy
2 years ago
The tiles should be left in tact. The 'break' will happen with the WEAKER material. The molding will certainly break before the tile. You will need more molding that's for sure.

And PLEASE have MORE VINYL on hand for this. Most vinyl planks can ONLY handle ONE installation. The edges on the planks OFTEN break when they are removed. It is the nature of the beast. Vinyl is BRITTLE and it LOVES to chip/break if it is handled too roughly.

I like to tell clients to PLAN on having to REPLACE (ie. purchase more) up to 25% of the removed vinyl planks. Yah. As much as 25%. That means your regular 5% waste/left over that you have tucked away (you do have that, right?) isn't going to cover the loss you are ABOUT to have.

Before you do anything, please contact the store where you purchased the vinyl and see if you can get more of it...you will want to have it on hand when the removal goes on. Just make sure you can return any unopen boxes.

And remember: you MOST LIKELY will have DIFFERENT DYE LOTS...which can mean different colours.

Once you have everything installed once more, try to keep 1-3 boxes for future repairs. Once these floors have been on the market for 18 months of more, they are DARN NEAR impossible to find again. The manufacturer makes a limited run and then they STOP making it.

IF you need a repair in, say, 5 years you will NEVER find this stuff again. Never. So keep up to 100sf on hand (that depends heavily on HOW MUCH flooring you have installed).
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In addition to what you mentioned, there are transition metal extrusions and profiles by the Schluter company that the tile installer may be able to use to make for a clean and neat transition. I agree that T molding is not pleasing to look at. Note that some of these may be installed 'after' the lower flooring is in, which in your case would be the wood...but that is not necessarily so. The two installers need to engineer this transition for you. If this were a new build with clear and definite architect's plans for the transition, this would already have been done. Each installer would know what the plan calls for. Since that doesn't seem to be the case here, then you must do the designing for them and tell them what you want to use and how you want it done. This will also help decide what gets installed first and how and when the transition gets installed. Lots of ways to give you what you want. Try not to 'settle' for something you don't. As Mick Jagger and Keith Richards say, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need!" And what you need may be very close to what you want. Give Schluter a look... Here is a link that might be useful: Schulter Profiles
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Sorry, I should have added---it's a 1916 Craftsman and we know there's a Doug fir subfloor underneath (it's a basement so you can see the flooring, plus we've pulled up an edge--that's how we know it's installed on a mortar bed). It's just the current tile job that was done in the mid-1990s. We can't know for sure if the wood is salvageable till we have a refinisher come see it, but I figured if it was the case that mortar bed installs typically render a subfloor totally unusable afterwards (versus only sometimes destroying the wood), we should figure that out sooner rather than later. Sounds like it varies widely depending on the installer. Thanks for the help, though---we'll just have to pull it up and see what we find! At the very least, if all we do is lay new linoleum, the old kitchen door will open again. :)
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How do you remove glued t molding from ceramic floor tile?

Comments (2)

millworkman

SJ McCarthy

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