Floor Preparation for Laminate Flooring

[weaver.jeff]

I will be installing laminate flooring in an area that is currently covered by tile flooring set in a layer of mortar over a piece of 1/2 inch plywood. The tile comes off easy enough with some chiseling and a hammer, but much of the mortar remains on the plywood. What is the recommended way to get the mortar off of the plywood without too much damage to the wood? More scraping or would it work to use a drum sander and sand off the mortar down to the plywood?

[HeyBub]

Why remove the tile? It's flat, the laminate will stick to it, the tile provides a vapor barrier.

Anyway, I don't think you can sand mortar, but it doesn't stick to the wood too aggressively. You should be able to hammer most of it off, then get most of the rest with a tile removal tool (big, heavy scraper).

[weaver.jeff]

The current tile actually isn't very flat. Its small 1 inch square tile that is about a 1/4 thick. The floor already consists of the original subfloor, a layer of vinyl flooring, then the 1/2 inch plywood, and the the ceramic tile that I am removing. I didn't want to put the flooring down on top of the tile because its already higher than the rest of the flooring that is in contact with. I was hoping to avoid scraping all of the mortar off because its a pretty large area and I'm thinking its going to take alot of time and work to get it smooth.

[Joe]

With a collection of mismatched junk layers like you have, it would be far less work to simply strip it all down to the subfloor and lay down some new 5/8" plywood. The other advantage is getting the floor heights to match nicely. Dispose of the plywood/tile in neat chunks without hacking apart except where you need to size it for the trash pickup. Good luck.

Joe

[HeyBub]

Ah, I was thinking 12" tiles. Anyway, if you have an air-compressor, this gizmo will chisel most anything up: