Remove and replace damaged Gyp-Crete before installing the finished floor covering.
Typically used in multi-floor buildings as a self-leveling flooring underlayment, Gyp-Crete reduces noise transfer through the building's subfloor. A building's finished floor covering bonds directly against the Gyp-Crete. Underlayment installers pour a 1/2-inch-thick layer of Gyp-Crete on top of a concrete subfloor. Wood-framed subfloors require a 3/4-inch-thick layer of Gyp-Crete. Excessive moisture and subfloor settlement issues create cracks and weak areas in the Gyp-Crete. Prior to installing the finished floor covering, a flooring installer removes and replaces any damaged areas of the Gyp-Crete underlayment.
Instructions
1. Put on a dust mask and safety goggles. Open all of the windows in the room with the damaged Gyp-Crete.
2. Cut around the perimeter of the damaged area of Gyp-Crete, using an angle grinder with a concrete-cutting blade. An angle grinder's blade slices through the Gyp-Crete with little resistance and rides across the surface of the dense concrete subfloor below. Do not force the blade into the concrete subfloor.
3. Position a bolster chisel's blade about 1 inch from the angle grinder-cut edge of the damaged Gyp-Crete. Hold the bolster chisel at a right angle to the Gyp-Crete and strike the chisel's handle with a hammer until the edge of the Gyp-Crete breaks free of the concrete subfloor. Remove the broken piece of Gyp-Crete, exposing the concrete subfloor below.
4. Place the bolster chisel's blade on the exposed section of the concrete subfloor. Angle the chisel so its blade faces the damaged Gyp-Crete and its handle rests at a 45-degree angle away from the damaged Gyp-Crete.
5. Strike the bolster chisel's handle with the hammer, wedging the chisel's blade between the Gyp-Crete and the concrete subfloor. The damaged Gyp-Crete will crumble as the chisel slides across the concrete's surface. Discard the Gyp-Crete debris. Remove all of the damaged Gyp-Crete, using the same procedure.
6. Clean the dust from the concrete subfloor with a vacuum. The vacuum exposes the leftover pieces of Gyp-Crete that the bolster chisel's blunt blade missed.
7. Slide a floor scraper across the concrete subfloor, removing the leftover pieces of Gyp-Crete.
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