i am going to install an engineered floating floor on a concrete slab, the slab is above grade, its been sealed and painted with epoxy, it now has high quality vinyl on it,do i have to remove the vinyl?
Absolutely no need to as long as the vinyl is down solid and secure. If the vinyl is down tight then obviously you don t have any sort of moisture problem since any hydrostatic pressure from below would ve blown the vinyl loose.. Your underlayment will take care of the floating floor system. Just make sure you flash it up on the ends and cut off later. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar. I ve attended many installation classes as well as installed a few 100,00 s/f.. GL
Since floating floors usually have an underlayment, I do not see any reason you would have to remove the vinyl. I would think it would serve the same purpose. If in doubt, try putting a piece of flooring down on the vinyl, and step on it. If there is too much give, then you would need to remove the previous flooring.
Since you are going to have a foam underlayment under it, there is really no need to remove the vinyl. The biggest problem with concrete slabs is moisture coming up from underneath, hopefully you will not have that problem. If you want to be super sure, try taping a piece of plastic sheeting to a small area of the floor sealing it completely with tape and see if any moisture accumulates.
