To Rip Up Or Overlay? That Is The Question

As this month’s CFJ is looking at refurbishment I thought it would be a good time to look at the practicalities of overlaying an existing flooring installation rather than the normal practice of ripping up and starting again. 

As many of you know, I’m a bit of a traditionalist myself, having been a floorlayer for almost 40 years, going back to the days when preparation was recognised as the single most important element of the installation.  This is an ethos I still firmly believe in, in my opinion, get the preparation wrong and the job’s on a slippery slope.

As a general rule, I would always recommend that the best course of action is to rip up the existing flooring. I’d even go as far as to say that as much of the degraded adhesive should be removed as possible, although I acknowledge this is seldom done.  But as in all walks of life, things move on and new product innovation and advances in technology mean that with the right materials, there are situations where I would happily advise overlay the existing installation.

1. When there is genuinely not enough time to rip up and screed prior to installing the new floor.  For instance, in a busy hotel kitchen or fast food outlet where the work is normally carried out at night and the flooring has to be replaced and fit for use at 6am.

2. There’s no chance of latex screed drying fully to enable the flooring to be laid and hot welded.  At best the latex would be surface dry but not cured, adhesives would not bond to the damp screed and the installation would be inherently weak.  Failure would be a matter of when, rather than if.

In these instances there is a case for overlaying the existing installation but using the right product can mean the difference between success and failure.  Last year, we launched Altro XpressLay™ – a revolutionary new safety flooring which can be installed without the use of adhesive.  Altro XpressLay is the first ever safety floor which can be installed using tape rather than traditional contact adhesive, making it extremely quick, easy and clean to fit. Most importantly for refurb projects, it can be laid over existing problem surfaces such as vinyl tiles or flaky painted floors, helping to save the time, cost and disruption associated with removing and disposing of existing subfloor. 

The unique product formulation and profiles underside also enables the flooring to be used on fresh concrete sub floors up to 97% relative humidity.  This means there is no need to wait for a new concrete sub floor to reach 75% or to apply a surface damp-proof membrane.

I was recently involved in the refurbishment of Tunbridge Wells High School which was one of the first to use this new safety flooring.  The contractor was amazed at how easy the product was to work with and how much time was saved.

As with any installation there are pros and cons of either method and whilst removing the old flooring may be preferable in many cases, there are now suitable alternatives when this isn’t practical. 

This article first appeared in the May 2010 edition of the CFJ.