year after years, the vinyl floor very hard to get it out from the plywood floor.
Honestly, it's a very difficult to impossible task. You'll use a lot of muscle power trying to unsuccessfully remove the vinyl. There are electric machines available which allow you to sand the floor down, but still you can't totally remove the vinyl without causing undue damage to the wood below. Best would be to sand it a little bit, make it rough and then lay another vinyl or ceramic tiles on top of it. This would be the quickest and best solution. Take care.
Chances are under your vinyl floor will be 1/4 inch luan plywood under that will be your subfloor. You will have to remove and replace the luan and the vinyl. The other solution for your floor will be to skim coat the existing vinyl and install your new vinyl on top. Only up to 2 layers before you will need to remove the 2 layers and the luan again. These installation methods are approved by the vinyl floor manufacturers. Ask for an installation guideline sheet. If they don't have one or can't get it for you. Run. Good luck with your project.
how old is the flooring? if it's from the 1970's, it could contain asbestos, so you want to be sure before you go too far and create bigger problems for yourself. you might be better off just burying it under the new flooring, if it's not all cracked or torn. if it is in bad shape, then you can put down plywood sheeting called underlayment, it's smooth faced and resists water damage. this underlayment plywood is only about 5/16-3/8 thick, so even with new vinyl sheet or tiles it won't build the floor up too much. some people use luan plywood, but it doesn't stand up to water very well, so i wouldn't use it in a kitchen or bathroom. if you put plywood down, screw the sheets every 6 around the edges, and every 8 throughout the middle of the sheet so it lays flat. buy or rent a drywall screw gun to do this, you can set the depth that it drives the screws deep enough without going too deep. after it's all down, go over all of the screw heads and the seams with levelastic cement so the plywood subflooring is smooth and flat. this is important because otherwise all of these defects will show through the new vinyl flooring. it's a lot of work to do it correctly and get a good job, but easier that pulling up the old stuff, or messing with asbestos. you can usually find pamphlets at the home centers on how to do this, or check out the instructions in a new box of tiles. good luck, hope this helps.
How to take an old vinyl floor up, depends a great deal on how it was intalled. Some are not glued at all. These come out simply by cutting around them. Some are glued only around the perimeters... a few slits here and there, and some tugging, and these will come up. Many have underlayment, to help provide a smoother surface.... with these, especially, if the vinyl is fully glued down... it is easier to score the vinyl and underlayment, and pry up the underlayment (with the vinyl still glued to it) If the old vinyl is glued directly to the subfloor, and the subfloor is in decent condition... needs no repairs. I would think about simply installing a thin underlayment over the old vinyl, and then install the new vinyl over that. (use screws, not nails, to attach the underlayment, hehe) Have Fun
