Best way to remove 1/2 inch glued and screwed OSB subfloor
Seyf28
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Gentlemen,
I am trying to remove half an inch of OSB subfloor from my living room. It has been very challenging even to remove a small portion so far. All the panels are both screwed and glued.
Even if I remove all the screws, I cannot pry them up and remove them as OSB is splitting into million pieces.
What would be the most efficient way to remove the glued OSB subfloor?
PS: I removed linoleum flooring all around the house. The living room is the only area left with 1/2 inch of OSB subfloor. To even out everything I want to remove it.
Thanks for the help,
Regards,
Replies
You can try a floor scraper. some fit into an SDS hammer drill.
Wear a mask and eye protection.
There will be a learning curve as you figure out the best angles and method.
You also can rent a walk-behind floor scraper
google up "floor scraper rental"
I was challenged by a similar situation in the kitchen I'm working on in a foreclosed house my wife and I bought in December.
I dusted the floor and got all nails as visible as possible. Call it risky, but I grabbed the circular saw set the depth to just a mm below the osb and made a few cuts up the floor, and then across those previous cuts to give myself a row of smaller squarish sections to pry on out with the big demo bar.
Make sure you keep a good eye on the nail lines - with any luck they nailed it with some sort of pattern. You'll get a feel for how big your squares can be using this practice, and you'll notice that they all come up a little easier it you work with a square that has 2 open edges to pry under. Make sure you take advantage of both sides of the pry bar. Pry an edge up, then use the long end and beat it underneath the osb with a 4-5lb sledge. the softer angle on the long end keeps the osb from splitting up, breaking apart, and driving you crazy.
Hope this helps, and wear ear protection!!
Thanks for the tip, I will try this next. I tried the SDS hammer drill recommendation as well, it was comparably easier than using a chisel but still, OSB was splitting like crazy.
Remove the screws
I have 3 or 4 of these OLD Stanley’s and start them along the edge maybe 6” apart. Continue driving them a couple times, one after the other. Do enough and you can get a bigger wrecking bar under there and maybe….
The old ones I have 40 yrs or more old, are probably different which might affect the workability.
Sucks but works.
I glossed over the screw part because in my case the ply was nailed. Definitely remove those screws! And I really like the idea of using a series of pry bars and hammering them in in sequence. That method should really be effective after screw removal and cutting your squares. Let us know how it goes!
my 2 cents...snap some lines next to the screws, set your circular saw to the correct depth to cut the osb out in small sections (as previously mentioned), leaving a "border" of the screwed osb, ply up the osb sections, take a hammer to the osb around the screws to knock off the osb, use a multi-tool with a metal blade to cut the exposed screws flush
once you get an area open, you can use a 2-3-4 foot crowbar to pry up the sections, hook the curl part under the osb and pry...leverage is your friend
lot of work regardless how you do it
good luck