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Flooring Removal Cost in Ontario: Tearout by Material, the Bin, What Is Under Old Floors, and the Asbestos in Old Vinyl Tile Nobody Checks For
Flooring & Tile
What It Costs to Tear Out Old Flooring, What You Find Underneath, and the Floor You Must Not Sand
Tearout is the part of a flooring job that gets quoted as a shrug. “We’ll take care of the old floor.” Then the carpet comes up and there is a glued vinyl under it, and under the vinyl there are 9×9 tiles from 1968, and the shrug turns into a change order. Removal has rates like everything else, and they are below, by material. The second half of the page is what is usually under an Ontario floor by age of house, what it costs to deal with, and the one thing you stop and test before anyone takes a grinder to it.
The removal rates
| Floor being removed | Per sq ft | What the work is |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet and underpad | $0.90 | Cut in strips, roll, pull the tack strip, pull a thousand staples from the pad. The staples are the hour. |
| Floating laminate or click vinyl plank | $1.25 | Comes apart from the last row. Underlay off, baseboard or quarter-round off first. |
| Glued sheet vinyl or glued vinyl plank | $2.00 | Scrape, heat, scrape again. The adhesive residue is the problem and it stays in the price. |
| Nailed or glued hardwood | $2.00 | Pry, break, pull the cleats or scrape the glue. Old solid oak fights back. |
| Ceramic or porcelain tile with mortar bed or thinset | $3.50 | Hammer drill, chisel, then the mortar off the subfloor. Loud, dusty, heavy. The bin fills fast. |
| Disposal bin, whole-house tearout | $450 | One bin covers most houses. Tile from two bathrooms and a foyer can fill half of it on its own. |
| Baseboard off and back on | $2.50 per lf | Every tearout where the trim stays. New primed MDF supplied, installed and painted is $6.50 per lf. |
| Occupied house | +10% | Furniture, dust walls, a path to the bin. |
The same rates are in the flooring cost calculator, where the removal is a line under each room. Minimum job applies: a crew does not come out to pull a $140 bedroom of carpet unless they are laying the new floor too.
A 1,600 sq ft house, torn out
A 1990s bungalow with carpet in the bedrooms and living room, glued-down parquet in the dining room and hall, and ceramic in the kitchen, foyer and two bathrooms. The owner is staying in the house.
| Line | Quantity | Rate | Before HST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpet and pad | 800 sq ft | $0.90 | $720 |
| Glued parquet | 500 sq ft | $2.00 | $1,000 |
| Ceramic tile and thinset | 300 sq ft | $3.50 | $1,050 |
| Baseboard off and back on | 200 lf | $2.50 | $500 |
| Bin | 1 | $450 | $450 |
| Tearout | $3,720 | ||
| Occupied house, 10% | $372 | ||
| Tearout, occupied | $4,092 |
Then the subfloor. Under the ceramic there is usually thinset ridge and a step down to the rest of the house; self-levelling the 300 sq ft at $3.00 is $900. Under the parquet there is glue residue, which is a $2.00 concrete grind if it is on a slab or a $2.75 plywood overlay if it is on wood. Two sheets of rotten plywood by the old dishwasher at $6.00 a square foot is $384. A fair prep allowance on this house is $1,500 to $2,000 on top of the tearout, and it is better to see it on the quote as an allowance than to meet it as a surprise. Subfloor levelling.
What is under an Ontario floor, by the age of the house
Before 1960: hardwood strip flooring on the main floor, often under three layers of later stuff, and board sheathing underneath laid diagonally. The hardwood may be worth saving. The sheathing has gaps a quarter-inch wide and will need plywood over it before anything floats on it.
1960 to about 1985: this is the asbestos window. 9×9 vinyl-asbestos tile, 12×12 in the later years, and the black cutback adhesive under it both commonly contain asbestos. Sheet vinyl of the period can have an asbestos felt backing. If you see 9×9 tile, or black tar-looking glue under any old resilient floor, stop. Ontario’s asbestos regulation treats removal as a controlled operation, the kind depends on how much and how it is done, and the one thing you never do is sand or grind it. A lab test on a piece the size of a loonie is cheap; a licensed abatement is a separate quote from a separate trade and I will not pretend to price it here. Left in place and covered with a floating floor, intact tile is a non-event; disturbed, it is a problem you own.
1985 to 2005: plywood or OSB subfloors, glued parquet in the dining room, the first wave of ceramic over plywood with no membrane, which is why the grout is cracked. The subfloor is usually sound but rarely flat. What to look for before the new floor.
After 2005: OSB or plywood, laminate over foam, click vinyl more recently. Easy tearout, and the usual find is a wet subfloor by the patio door or under a dishwasher that nobody knew was leaking.
Where homeowners go wrong
- Letting the new-floor quote carry removal as “included”. It is included at carpet rates. When the tile shows up, so does the invoice. Ask for the rate per material, in writing.
- Doing the tearout themselves to save $1,000 and leaving the staples. The installer charges to clean up the subfloor anyway and now has no idea what else was skipped. If you tear out yourself, pull every staple, every nail, every bit of tack strip, and sweep until the broom comes up clean.
- Grinding or sanding an old resilient floor without a test. Covered above. The fine dust is the whole hazard.
- Forgetting the step. Pulling 3/4 in. of tile and mortar out of a kitchen and laying 8 mm vinyl leaves a 3/4 in. drop at the hall. Plan the levelling or the transition before the tile comes out, not after.
- Pulling baseboard that cannot go back. Forty-year-old painted trim breaks. Price new MDF at $6.50 per lf into the job rather than hoping.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to remove old flooring in Ontario?
Carpet about $0.90 a square foot, floating floors $1.25, glued vinyl or hardwood $2.00 and ceramic tile $3.50, plus a $450 bin for a whole house. A 1,600 sq ft house with a mix is $3,500 to $4,500 before HST and before any subfloor repair.
How do I know if my old floor tile has asbestos?
You do not, by looking. 9×9 tiles, pre-1985 12×12 tiles and black adhesive under any of them are the usual suspects. Have a sample tested at a lab before anyone cuts, sands or grinds it. Intact and covered, it is not a hazard; made into dust, it is.
Can new flooring go over old flooring?
Floating vinyl or laminate can go over a flat, sound, well-glued old vinyl or tile floor, and over intact asbestos tile, which is often the right call. Hardwood and tile want the old floor off and the subfloor seen. Carpet always comes out.
Who removes the toilet and the appliances?
Ask. Most flooring crews pull and reset a toilet for a flat fee and move a fridge and stove; many will not touch the dishwasher or the gas range. Get it on the quote.
Price the tearout with the floor
The flooring cost calculator has a removal line for each room by the material coming out, plus the bin and the prep. If a quote in hand says “removal included” and nothing else, the $99 review will tell you what that probably means.
Sources and further reading
- Asbestos on construction projects (O. Reg. 278/05): Ontario Ministry of Labour: pre-1980 sheet vinyl, 9×9 tiles and black adhesive are named materials; what has to happen before anyone scrapes them up.
- Addressing moisture and mould in your home: Health Canada: what mould under a floor means, when it can be cleaned and when the floor comes out.
- Your rights when starting home renovations or repairs: Ontario government: the 10-day cooling-off period, the written contract rule, estimates, and what to do about a contractor who walks.
