how to remove glued down carpet

might want to put down wood flooring...but floor has carpeting glued down...what's teh best way to get this stuff up?

thanks all

Reply to
bpuharic
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whats the floor made of? wood? concrete? tile?

Reply to
hallerb

Check what kind of glue was used. The water based ones can sometimes be dissolved/softened by wetting, and carpet and glue can be pulled and scraped. Sometimes only sweat, muscle and hacking will do.

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

floor's plywood

Reply to
bpuharic

i was afraid you were gonna say that!

Reply to
bpuharic

I had some carpet replaced that was glued down. The installers had something about the size of a small lawn mower. It was powered by an electric motor and had a scraper blade. Similar to an electric powered puddy knife. It was around 18 inches to 2 feet wide. What that did not get up, they used some sanding machines.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

might be easier to just replace the plywood or overlay it with more,,, like that underlayment

Reply to
hallerb

Usually carpet glue is not too aggressive, after all, where's the carpet gonna go? Moreover, the carpet probably won't be glued over its entire extent; just the walls and a few splashes in the middle.

So, then, try first a couple of strong backs while chanting "Yo ho, heave ho."

If that's not totally successfuly, then a tile scraper (long handle, 6" flat blade) may get up the residual.

If THAT fails, then a pneumatic tile scraper - the proverbial "bigger hammer."

Reply to
HeyBub

I would try one of the so-called multitools with a non-toothed scraper blade. Much of it might just pull off ... as someone posted, carpeting eventually needs to be replace. BTW, you can get the multitool knockoffs for $30 (Harbor Freight).

Reply to
Art Todesco

Multiple layers of plywood, or was the plywood applied over the real floor? Carpet directly over plywood subfloor is uncommon, and not considered good workmanlike practice. Back in stone age, if the owner knew they didn't want the then-standard hardwood, we put down a layer of

5/8 particle board, to give the floor some mass. Or is your floor one of those extra-thick T&G all-in-one deck products?

I could cry when I think about all the thousands of acres of good hardwood floors that got hidden under W/W carpet before anybody ever got to see it or walk on it. Only rich people can afford real hardwood in every room but bath/kitchen/entryways these days, and it used to be standard in everything except absolutely bottom-level cookie cutters. Carpet used to be for rich people. When did the world turn upside down again?

But having said all that- I assume this is self-padded carpet? Unless installed by a first-timer, it is probably only spot-glued. Heat gun may help, depending on type of glue used, but it is a lot of manual effort even with a stripping machine. Carpet will come up, but the black foam crap won't, and the created dust is almost as nasty as a copier toner accident. (Idiot previous owner of this place glued down that crap in furnace room of all places, and scraping up the last of the residue has been on my to-do list for several years.)

Reply to
aemeijers

not sure what's under there exactly. have an inconspicuous secdtion i could pull up...

yeah you bet. i had an older house with carpeting. pulled it up and found BEAUTIFUL hardwood which i was able to restore...cheap carpet, good floor!

it's cheap carpet so i think it is self padded...more like indoor outdoor. previous owner had lots of kids and ran a daycare for kids

Reply to
bpuharic

ouch! sounds like fun!

Reply to
bpuharic

good info guys! thanks

Reply to
bpuharic

I spent over a week of evenings trying to get glued down self padded carpet off a vinyl floor.at a buddies home

very hard work that really wasnt worth the effort

Reply to
hallerb

quoted text -

I put one of these down on a vinyl tile floor and foam pad glued itself to floor after several years. Took me a lot of scraping to get up. I seem to recall reading that freezing with dry ice would make it more brittle and easier to scrape, but I did not try it.

Reply to
Frank

Back in the early 80's I removed glued down kitchen carpet over plywood sub floor to install tile. After the carpet was pulled up there was a significant residue of carpet padding/backing stuck to the floor plus ridges of adhesive left from the trowling process. Then I used a wire cup brush on an electric angle grinder to remove what was left. It was slow but not too difficult or labor intensive, and everything came up. However, we found crumbs of carpet padding in the lower kitchen cabinets for years.

Catwatcher

Reply to
Catwatcher

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