We have purchased a house with brick (real brick, 1/2 inch thick) flooring in several rooms. It appears that the brick is glued to concrete backer board and the board is glued to the plywood subfloor. Then the whole thing was grouted and sealed.
Any ideas on how to remove this? We really would like to put wood floors in these areas (kitchen and front hall).
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Replies
Chip out a section of grout. stick a pry bar in the gap, and start levering. The bricks are brittle enough that they will easily break. You will leave chunks of brick attached to the backer board, which is ok cuz you want to remove that also and get down to the plywood.
After all that is gone, you need to determine how to get the flooring back to the right height. Do you want the top of the wood floor at the same height that the bricks were?
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
We want the floor height to match the wood flooring in the adjoining areas. Seems the bricks currently are 1/4 " higher than the wood floors.
Then how would we get that backer board off? same way?
If it's like Hardieboard, there a better than average chance the installer did not 'glue' the hardie to the plywood. Most people don't. So once the bricks are up, the hardie should break pretty easily with a prybar under it. The screws will stay, but they can be snapped off, sawn off, or unscrewed.
So you probably have 1/2" hardie and 1/2" bricks with a thin layer of mortar ... probably 1-1/4" total at the most. 3/4" wood boards? That leaves enough room for 1/4" plywood.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Well, it is glued, and they did a damn fine job of it too. We've decided to cover up the whole mess with a floating hardwood floor and move on. Thanks for the advice.
Hire Hispanics. Negotiate a price and and iron out the details. Go away for an hour. Come back, inspect the job, smile inwardly and pay cash.
You made my cold beverage come out my nose!