Any flooring guru's here?

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Seems I need to tap the talent pool here once again.  Its time to FINALLY do the kitchen floor. Seems like I'm able to knock off the old linoleum pretty easily. But there is some sort of (felt??) underlayment that's a sonofagun. Whats the best way to get this stuff off and not destroy the wood underneath??   -Hardwood not plywood

[jimynick]

Well, I've done some of this and there's no easy way that I know of. Richards makes a nice 4" angled head scraper with a 12' handle and it's scrape-city. Since you're flooring over it, I don't see why you'd try to be overly careful and a carefully sharpened ice scraper- you know, the one's with a 4 ft handle, work reasonably well. Any way you cut it, it's an ugly job. Lots of guys use the 3/16" luan plywood and go right over the whole shebang. Just my 

['Cuda Hunter]

Richards makes a nice 4" angled head scraper with a 12' handle and it's scrape-city.

Nailed it right on the head.
Done this many times to remove the black underlayment.
The hand scraper is the way to go.
Electric styles don't work as well.  And they cause far more severe damage to the sub floor.

Lots of guys use the 3/8 plywood.  But I don't recommend it for most cases.
What flooring are you putting down over the top of the sub floor?

I personally usually scrape everything and then sand/ refinish the existing flooring.

Hope my two cents helped a little.

[CHL2T]

Use a heat gun to soften up the glue before scraping an interminable amount of time.....

Or as others have suggested, go over it with plywood, I normally use 1/4 sanded plywood underlayment shot down with 1" narrow crown staples

[brads70]

I've used the as mentioned ice scraper method. Not a fun/ easy job. 
Never seen that " felt" stuff before though? ( not that I've done a lot of flooring work either?) Are we sure that is not asbestos ?

[71gogreen]

Whats the finish material your using?

[72cudamaan]

That's the backing from the linoleum. It may scrape off but I assume you want to use the original hardwood flooring
that is underneath it? That means using a drum sander to get down to the good base wood. Scraping may cause significant
damage if not very careful.

[Fern]

That's the backing from the linoleum. It may scrape off but I assume you want to use the original hardwood flooring
that is underneath it? That means using a drum sander to get down to the good base wood. Scraping may cause significant
damage if not very careful.

 

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Another night of linoleum fun. I've pretty much decided to get the crap up and plywood over the existing underlayment. The wife has found some tile she likes  http://www.mannington.com/Residential/Adura/Search.aspx?FilterCollections=0 Looks like I'm going in that direction anyway.

safety warning - if you have a jenn-air style range (this is one with its own exhaust fan). Mine was floor mounted. If its been on for some years, take it out of the housing and clean it. I had to move it and I couldn't believe the amount of greasy crap in the blower cage. I've got it soaking in degreaser now. After I scrapped the junk off it for 20 minute.   

[Barracudadan]

I've used the as mentioned ice scraper method. Not a fun/ easy job. 
Never seen that " felt" stuff before though? ( not that I've done a lot of flooring work either?) Are we sure that is not asbestos ?

X2  Some of that old mastic is known to contain Asbestos do you know when it was put down originally? 70`s or earlier could have asbestos  80`s and after not so much? The older the job the better chance it could contain asbestos. What are you replacing the old linoleum with?

[MOPAR FANATIC]

  OL Bigs,how's the flooring coming along? git r done yet? 

[IMNCARN82]

Ya that stuff is a real PITA!  The worst I've ever had took a wallpaper steamer with a scraper.