Tips For Removing Linoleum

When it comes time to get new flooring you can save money by removing the old flooring yourself but if you have old linoleum on your floors you might be in for quite a challenge. Depending on how old the linoleum is and the type of adhesive that was used it can be extremely difficult to get up.

First of all, it's unlikely that you'll be able to just take off the linoleum and adhesive all at once. The covering under the linoleum and the damage you might cause it needs to be considered - especially if that covering is wood. Concrete floors can take a lot more in the way of rough treatment. The type of scraper you use has a lot to do with your success as well as the damage to the floor underneath. Many population use paint scrapers but those with a razor blade are normally more efficient. Be prepared to break some blades it if the adhesive is hard, and you're working on concrete.

Heat Gun

Try cutting the linoleum into strips or sections instead of removing the whole chunk at once. This will make it easier to get an edge to pry up. Of course, the linoleum probably won't come up in nice neat sections so be prepared to deal with a lot of left over backing and glue that is still attached to your floor.

Tips For Removing Linoleum

One way to deal with those remnants that just won't come up is to apply some kind of solvent or remover. A beloved brand is Krud Kutter, which appears to work very well from the customer feedback comments. Follow directions on the label of anyone stock you employ, and wear gloves to protect your hands. Do a small section at a time, and then move to the next one.

Another technique is to use boiling water and pour it directly on the backing and adhesive. Let it soak and then scrape up. If you don't want to use water, you can try to heat up the glue with a hair dryer or heat gun. Pick a very inconspicuous area, such as behind a door, to try it. Heat the adhesive with the hair dryer and scrape it up with a straight-blade scraper (like a stiff putty knife with a beveled edge). Move the scraper in the direction of the grain of the wood if you are uncovering a hardwood floor. Have a pan or some other package handy to drop the scrapings into - one that is unlikely to whether melt or ignite when arrival in contact with hot materials. Be very true if you are using a heat gun as this can certainly damage the floor underneath if it is wood.

If worse comes to worse and you are left with some stubborn adhesive on the floors, it might be time to sand. Of course, if your floors are wood and you plan to refinish them you would need to sand anyway, but while this step you must be true not to damage the singular area by keeping the sander on it for too long.

Once you finally get the linoleum and all traces of adhesive up, you are ready to seal the floor as recommended for the type of flooring and apply the new floor as recommended!

Tips For Removing Linoleum

Leather heal - How To heal Torn Leather Seat

There are so many dissimilar types of automotive leather seat repair, all with dissimilar situations and applications. There are holes, scratches, gouges, cuts, scrapes, worn or cracked, and just down right grungy seeing leather seats. I think I got them all covered, well in this article we're going to talk about how to repair a small hole in a leather seat lean back, for those of you who don't know what a lean back is well it's the upper part of the seat.

Now when I say small this can apply for a tear up to 1 1/2" to 2", probably might go a little bigger, but lets not push it, if it needs to go to the upholstery shop for an insert then that would be best then a crappy seeing leather repair on something that probably wouldn't hold anyways. When in doubt, insert it.

Heat Gun

Prepping a seat is the key to success in any leather repair, and a continuing leather dye job. So, prep the whole lean back, and while your at it just clean the whole seat, why not, but you don't have to, with your prepping solution removing all grease, dirt, and grime. You need a clean exterior and a well prepped area to work with. When I prep, I use a solution of rubbing alcohol, acetone, ammonia, and a small amount of Tsp substitute, with water in a spray bottle. Spray the seat with the solution and scrub with a scotch brite pad to scuff the leather seat for leather dye adhesion and take off any grime that's on the seat, then wipe clean with a clean lint free towel. Once your clean, apply a grip base primer to the seat, I commonly in most cases will dye the entire lean back when I do a repair or the entire seat, but sometimes it's not necessary, so you may not need to prime the whole seat, but do clean the seat good this cuts down on the amount of leather dye used and the ending effect will be a premium leather repair.

Leather heal - How To heal Torn Leather Seat

Now to the hole. Lets say it's in a V shape, just for example. Like where you've gott'n out of the seat with something in your back pocket, ouch! I know the feeling, back in college I had a 1986 Mustang Svo, very rare and nice car (man I miss that car) and I got out to go to class with a pen in my back pocket and ripped about a 2" V shape in the seat, I about puked right there, and of procedure at the time I didn't know anything about leather repair. But now I do and here it is.

Sand the area nearby the tear with a 240 grit sandpaper, this gives a little more for the low heat composition to grip to. Take a piece of underpatch material and slide the under patch under the tear with a pair of tweezers, allowing about a 1/2" on the inside all the way around. I commonly cut my patches in a circular shape, it makes it a little easier to slide under. You can use dissimilar types of under patches, I like the kind that is coated on one side with a heat activated glue.

Now take a drop of leather glue and spread a thin coat on the patch on the underside of the leather repair area. If the leather will lay down smoothly and match up then great, but sometimes it just won't. In this case we will use combo of the glue and your low cure leather repair composition and smooth a small amount over the patch then lay the leather down. Spread a small amount of low heat composition over the area and smooth it out with your pallet knife, remembering to keeping your area as small as possible, the smaller the better. Now heat the area with your heat gun, hold the heat gun out away from the leather repair and slowly move it into the repair area, this will give you just a little more operate of the heat, you don't want to burn and shrink the leather. The idea is to cure the composition and get it to bind before you cook the leather, it's a skill thing, institution makes perfect. Once the composition is cured immediately press the grain pad in your palm onto the repair, don't press to hard, but firm.

At this time using a wet paper towel apply a small amount of grip base to the repair area and dye with your color matched water based leather dye. Dry thin coats of dye, not wet. Then reapply and smooth out other thin coat of compound. Heat again and grain then dye, get the idea, what you are doing is construction the repair up. Thin coats of composition applied and cured then reapplied, are much best then one thick coat. Once you have it built up and seeing nice, blend the repair into the rest of the seat if needed, by applying thin coats of leather dye to stop it off. Drying between coats of dye with a hairdryer, and one great tip is rubbing the leather dye with your hands to force the dye into the creases of the leather helps a ton, don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. I say that but I'm allergic to rubber gloves, it bites, so I come home every day with dye all over my hands, it's a pain, but I love the work and the job looks best with a little bit of love rubbed on those leather seat repairs. After the dye is cured, apply a top coat of satin or dull leather clear top coat mixed with a bit of slip additive added for the soft feel. Dry the seat thoroughly, then apply your leather conditioner to stop and give the seat the juice it needs and a great feel and look for you.

Now there are so many other variations to this fix, sometimes I will have to use an air dry leather repair composition over the top of the low heat composition to smooth out the leather repair. Sanding it with a 400 grit sandpaper until it looks right. You can also turn your air down on your paint gun until little droplets are arrival out to give it a textured look, drying between coats. Texture coatings, can be used, but if you do it right the gun effect works great. When I do a leather repair I won't give up until it looks perfect. Patience is a virtue, right. Don't get in a hurry, this will only frustrate you more and then you really got issues.

Leather repair is a craft and profession. The dyes and compounds I use are top potential and are made to last. Giving you a continuing leather seat repair, and relieve knowing you have a leather repair that will last and look great for years to come.

I hope this was some help to you, in the arrival months there will be more articles like this one but on dissimilar situations on leather repair, liked I talked about in the first. There are so many dissimilar ways that a leather seat can be damaged, we spend a lot of time in our cars and well "sh$$ happens", right. So check back to see my next article on automotive leather seat repairs. If you have anything you would like to ask feel free to shoot me some comments on Leather repair - How To repair Torn Leather Seat.

Leather heal - How To heal Torn Leather Seat