Old Floor Removal and Subfloor Prep, Done Right the First Time

This is where we spend the most care, because it's the part most other companies rush past. Once the old flooring is out, we inspect every inch of the subfloor for rot, water damage, delamination, and soft or bouncy spots - common in older West Michigan homes and anywhere a slow leak has gone unnoticed. Damaged plywood or OSB gets cut out and replaced section by section rather than skimmed over, loose or squeaky sections get re-secured to the joists, and any structural concerns get flagged before we move forward. Only once the subfloor is solid do we bring in self-leveling compound to flatten high and low spots to manufacturer tolerance.

Old adhesives and flooring materials can contain silica, glue residue, and sometimes asbestos in homes built before 1990. We seal off work areas with plastic, run HEPA-filtered air scrubbers, and wear proper PPE - standard practice on commercial demo, but rare on a residential job. The result is a project you can live next to without scrubbing dust out of your kitchen for weeks afterward. This same prep work happens ahead of every installation we do, whether it's hardwood or LVP going down after us.