Old Flooring Removal and Disposal on Maui
Maui Prestige Flooring tears out old carpet, tile, glued-down wood, vinyl and laminate, hauls it away and leaves a clean slab or subfloor ready for the next floor. We do this for homeowners, condo owners, landlords and commercial clients across Maui, usually as the first stage of a new installation.
Removal looks simple until the crew meets a mortar bed, a slab coated in black mastic or 9 x 9 inch tiles from the 1960s. Over 16+ years and more than 1,700 jobs, we have learned to identify what is under a floor before anything gets broken up.
Every tear-out is planned with dust control, asbestos screening where the floor's age calls for it and a disposal plan. Your written quote lists removal and haul-away as their own lines.
Floor Removal and Disposal Services on Maui
Floor removal covers everything between your old floor and a bare, clean surface ready for prep. That means the flooring itself, the pad or adhesive under it and the debris leaving your property.
What a removal job includes:
- Pulling carpet, pad, staples and tack strip
- Breaking out ceramic, porcelain and stone tile
- Scraping or grinding thinset, mortar and adhesive
- Removing glued or nailed wood, vinyl, VCT and floating floors
- Pulling baseboards for reinstall, or replacing them through our baseboards, trim and transitions service
- Loading, haul-away and a swept, HEPA-vacuumed slab
Most of our removal work is the first stage of a new floor. That keeps one team responsible for the surface the new floor sits on, with no finger-pointing between a demo crew and an installer.
What We Remove
Carpet and floating floors come out fast, while tile and glued-down wood take the longest. The times below are typical for about 500 sq ft on a concrete slab.
| Floor | Difficulty | Typical time per 500 sq ft | What is left behind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpet and pad | Easy | 2 to 4 hours | Tack strip, staples, glue spots |
| Laminate and click vinyl (floating) | Easy | 2 to 4 hours | Foam underlayment |
| Glue-down vinyl plank and VCT | Moderate | Half a day to 1.5 days | Adhesive to scrape or grind |
| Sheet vinyl | Moderate | Half a day to 1 day | Felt backing and adhesive |
| Ceramic and porcelain tile on thinset | Hard | 1 to 2 days | Thinset ridges to grind |
| Tile on a mortar bed | Very hard | 2 to 3 days | Sand and cement rubble, a lower slab |
| Glued-down wood | Very hard | 1.5 to 3 days | Urethane adhesive to grind off |
| Nail-down wood over plywood | Moderate | About 1 day | Nails and staples to pull |
Stairs, small bathrooms and rooms full of built-in cabinets take longer per square foot. Upstairs condos add time for carrying debris to the elevator and the loading zone.
Tile Removal and Slab Cleanup
Tile removal is two jobs: breaking the tile off, then getting the thinset off so the slab is ready for what comes next. The second part decides whether your new floor goes down flat.
We break tile out with electric demolition hammers fitted with wide chisel blades, held at a low angle so the slab is not gouged. Older Maui homes often have tile set in a thick mortar bed, which comes out in heavy chunks and leaves a lower slab that may need building back up.
Thinset ridges are then ground off with a diamond cup wheel on a shrouded grinder. The finish depends on the next floor: smooth and flat for luxury vinyl plank installation, clean and sound for new tile, and fully stripped for epoxy floor coatings.
Old tile or carpet coming out?
We quote removal, haul-away and slab cleanup as separate lines so you know what each step costs.
Test Old Vinyl and Black Mastic Before Removal
If your vinyl tile, sheet vinyl or black adhesive dates from before about 1980, have it tested for asbestos before anyone scrapes, breaks or grinds it. Fibers are released when these materials are disturbed, and you cannot tell by looking.
Materials most likely to contain asbestos:
- 9 x 9 inch vinyl floor tiles, a common size into the late 1970s
- Some 12 x 12 inch vinyl tiles from the same era
- Black cutback mastic, the tar-like adhesive under old tile and parquet
- Older sheet vinyl with a paper or felt backing
Wondering how to tell if floor tiles are asbestos? Only a lab test confirms it. Age, a 9 inch square size, a dull speckled pattern, brittle edges and black adhesive on the back all raise the odds, which is why we test rather than guess.
Never sand, scrape dry or grind a suspect floor yourself. Intact, undamaged asbestos tile is low risk until someone starts breaking it up.
Identify
At the measure
We note the floor’s age, tile size and adhesive color, and flag anything suspect before quoting removal.
Sample and test
A few days
A qualified asbestos inspector takes small samples, and an accredited lab analyzes them by polarized light microscopy (PLM).
Proceed or abate
After results
A negative result means we remove the floor normally. A positive result means a licensed C-19 asbestos contractor removes it first, and we start once the area is cleared.
Hawaii’s asbestos rules are in HAR Title 11, Chapter 501, administered by the Department of Health Indoor and Radiological Health Branch. For covered buildings they require notice to the DOH before renovation that disturbs regulated asbestos, and the DOH asbestos notification guide explains who must file.
Dust Control and Protecting Your Home
We seal off the work area, capture dust at the tool and protect every surface the crew walks across. Tile and thinset dust contains crystalline silica, so controlling it protects lungs as well as furniture.
- Plastic barriers with zippered doors around the work zone
- HVAC returns and vents sealed, with fans exhausting to the outside
- Shrouded grinders and saws connected to HEPA dust extractors
- Floor protection board and runners from the work area to the door
- HEPA vacuuming of the slab, sills and ledges at the end of each day
These controls follow the approach in OSHA’s respirable crystalline silica standard for construction, which calls for vacuum dust collection or water on grinders and chipping tools.
Living at home during removal works for most single-room jobs. For whole-house tile removal, plan to be out on breakout days or keep to the far end of the house, and move the furniture first with our furniture moving service for flooring jobs.
Where Your Old Floor Goes
Debris leaves the property the day it comes up, or in a roll-off bin on larger jobs, and goes to a permitted facility. Most construction and demolition waste on Maui ends up at the County’s Central Maui Landfill in Puunene, which accepts commercial C&D loads by account.
Some materials can stay out of the landfill:
- Clean concrete and tile rubble can go to an aggregate recycler where one accepts it
- Undamaged hardwood, trim and unopened boxes of flooring can be donated or kept for repairs
- Metal transition strips and nail-laden tack strip can go to scrap metal
Asbestos-containing material never goes in a regular load. The abatement contractor packs, labels and disposes of it under DOH rules.
On Lanai and Molokai, debris goes to that island’s county landfill or back to Maui by barge, and we build that into the quote.
FAQ
Floor Removal FAQ
Can new flooring go over the old floor instead?
Sometimes. Floating vinyl or laminate can go over well-bonded tile or a single layer of sheet vinyl if the surface is flat and the added height still clears doors, appliances and transitions. Carpet, cushioned vinyl, loose tile and anything with moisture problems underneath must come out.
Covering suspected asbestos tile instead of removing it can be an option, but only after testing and with a clear record for future owners.
How long does tile removal take?
A small bathroom usually takes half a day to a full day, and a 500 sq ft room set on thinset takes 1 to 2 days including grinding. Tile set in a thick mortar bed can take twice as long. Add a day for leveling if the slab still needs it after grinding.
Do you offer removal without installing new floors?
Removal is usually quoted as the first stage of a new installation, which is where it is most cost-effective. If you only need a floor taken out, for example before a remodel or after a leak, call us with the room sizes and flooring type. We will tell you whether we can fit it in and send a written quote.
Get a quote
Clear the Way for Your New Floor
Tell us what is on the floor now, roughly how old it is and what is going down next. We will check it, flag anything that needs testing and send a written quote for removal, haul-away and prep.
- Mon to Sat 7am to 9pm, Sun 9am to 9pm
- 1710 W Kaahumanu Ave, Wailuku, HI 96793
- Licensed, insured and backed by a 1-year labor warranty