Old foam backed carpets

[Brian Gaff]

Soon I will have to get my upstairs bedrooms recarpeted. Now they were done many years ago with foam backed carpet, and a peak under the edge of one shows that this, in most cases has turned to a kind of microscopic dust. Indeed in some places you can feel its formed hard lumps under the carpet. I've been noticing more dust in the room and at night even some sore eyes. I suspect this dust is the reason. Now although in older times I'd maybehave had a go at removing eye old carpet myself, this looks like a complete nightmare. If you engage a carpet company to fit a new carpet would they be able to get rid of this mess effectively or is it going to be a problem? Maybe they all come with some kind of industrial strength vacuum device to take the dust away? Brian

[spuorgelgoog]

They would be able to, but would they be willing to?

If you're very lucky, and give them a broom, they might give the room a quick sweep for you - which just means the dust will go everywhere else.

Any extra service would need to be booked in advance and added to the bill. You might be able to get them to do the old removal, then go to another job and come back later for the new fitting, while you or someone else does the vacuuming.

Owain

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff explained on 30/11/2018 :

I had the same problem several years ago, I'm not sure is its still sold, but I will not buy it now. Its not difficult to deal with - clear the room, lift the carpet, fold it face out so no more escapes and out. A quick scrape over the entire floor, with a scraper to lift what is stuck to the boards, then a good sweep/ vacuum round. No need for an industrial vac, an ordinary domestic upright is fine. Best warn the fitter though, what he/she is dealing with.

[Tim Lamb]

In message <ptqqdn$37g$ [e-mail], Brian Gaff [e-mail]> writes

Current experience is that the carpet shop measure up and sell the carpet/underlay which is then installed by contract fitters.

Not one scrap of waste will be removed from site!

Amazing work rate. 8am, man with glue gun, underlay and pack of gripper strips starts. First job to pull out the gripper fixing nails (underfloor heating pipes). Late morning, van and 2 more blokes arrive with the carpet. 6.30pm they are off site! Lots of cutting because of the alcoves and corridor. 5 rooms plus large lounge.

[Bob Eager]

I had to deal with this when we moved in here.

I ended up cutting the carpet into strips, which I then rolled up and bagged (double bagged or a heavy duty one). Then could then be taken down to the tip.

Then a careful vacuuming (keeping the cleaner outlet outside the room as much as possible to avoid blowing the dust around). And a cartridge style respirator!

[Muddymike]

That depends on where you buy your carpets. Use one of the sheds and they use subcontract fitters who do as little as possible and expect you to dispose of the old carpets.

Use a family firm who employ their own fitters as we recently have and not only did they move funiture, take all the old carpet & underlay away but didn't want payment until several days after the job was finished.

Mike

[Bob Eager]

That's what we do. Quite often one of the family (it's a big family!) is one of the fitters.

We had to take the old carpets up long in advance so that I could rewire the house.

[tabbypurr]

nothing difficult about it at all.

NT

[alan_m]

I done this in the past few weeks with the added problem that one foam backed carpet had been used as the underlay for a second foam backed carpet.

I cut the carpet into narrow strips, rolled it up, bound each roll with duct tape and used rubble sacks. The amount of dusts from the degraded foam was vacuumed up as each strip was removed. It was a dirty job with my clothes completely covered in foam dust.

For the few carpet places I've visited their standard fitting is for a room that has cleared of furniture and the old carpet.

[alan_m]

But that wouldn't have been a zero cost option!

[Muddymike]

The square meter price of the carpet including fitting was competitive.

Mike

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, that's what my carpet fitter said, except he said don't remove the carpet from the stairs which in my case have two winders, as he would use it as a pattern to cut the new stair carpet.

When it came to it, he didn't use it as a patterm, but he didn't charge for removal/disposal of it either. I had removed all the rest of the carpet. I had to use a flat-edged garden spade to get some of the old foam backing off the floor, where it had stuck well.

[Steve Walker]

The old trick was to lay it on sheets of newspaper, to prevent it sticking to the floor in the first place. Removal is then simply rolling up the carpet and newapaper together and vaccing up the loose dust.

SteveW

[Brian Gaff]

Its something one does not think of when you put down a carpet, at least we did not. I notice its actually or was, sticky taped onto the floorboards with double sided tape around the edges and hence there is a little hillock under all the edges. I'm almost tempted to just shove it down and forget it for now! Seemed like a good idea before this.. ahem. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I think ours will deal with a bed and a couple of liftable cupboards but not a lot else. they just shift stuff about while they do it. Ho hum. Is this stuff toxic or just a blessed nuisence? Obviously we are not going to ingest it! Brian

[alan_m]

I found the dust to be much like a fine sand. It was heavy enough not to become too airborne but it stuck to any clothing and continued to fall from the carpet pieces every time they were moved hence bagging up in rubble sacks (top of sacks left open). The bags went down to my local tip in the back seat of my car with the seats protected with a waterproof dog hammock. I still had a substantial amount of degraded foam dust in this hammock when the rubble sacks were removed.

If doing it again I would seal the rubble sacks by placing them in black dustbin bags before moving them from the original carpeted room. Black bin bags on their own are too fragile to accept multiple rolled up carpet pieces without the bag splitting hence the use of thick plastic rubble sacks.

[alan_m]

If the carpet has been down that long I think you will find that it is no longer glued down at the edges. Not only does the foam degrade but the glue dries out goes brittle and will be no longer attached to the double side tape inner material.

[tabbypurr]

irony in action

[Jim K.]

Adding plenty as usual...

[Jim K..]

Adding plenty as usual...