Does anyone knows how to get up glued carpet from a floor?
Question:The previous tenant glued carpet on a nice wood floor and I am trying to get it upI need help? from louisiana
Answers:
I really do not understand why people do such foolish things. Now i'ts going to be a lot of work to get the carpet up and refinish the wood strip flooring beneath to its former glory.
A few questions before we start:
(Depending on the age of the house.and the answers to the questions below):
1. Is the carpet that is glued down Kanga , (Rubber Backed), or Jute, (Woven Fiber) backed?
2. Is the Carpet glued down just around the perimeter of the room, or under the entire area of the room?
3. Wood Flooring:
a. What is the "Wood Floor": beneath the carpeting?
b. What width are the floor strips or planks?
c If the "wood flooring" below the carpeting is not 2" - 4" wood strips that run parallel to to one of the walls in the room, Instead does the floor consist of coarse plank "flooring" runnning diagonally thru room, - or parallel with the "long" access of the house?
4. Floor Transitions: Go thru the house on this floor level - do you find any transitions in floor height? Look for these to occur at the center of door or portal openings. what you are looking for is a difference in floor elevation of about 5/8" - 1". Obvious places to check are at Kitchen/Dining Room entry and Hall/Bath portal. Another good place to look is at any thru floor registers. To see what the flooring, underlayment and sub-flooring are - and wether or not there is an underlayament layer between the floor and subfloor.
OK - so much for Questions.
Now what were those all about any way?
1. Carpet backing: Kanga, (rubber backed) carpet is MUCH tougher to remove than jute backed carpet. You can rent a vibratory carpet remover with a vibrating blade that works great for removing glued down carpet from concrete and wood floors (You have to be really careful on wood & put a felt skid pad under the blade to avoid scaring the wood floor. But the adhesive is usually dried out to where it removes pretty easy. The rubber-backed is a much different story - that stuff can be a bear - sometimes it's like the adhesive melted onto the wood surface below, and you have to cut away the top veneer of wood to remove the backing.
3. I've had occasion, (several times actuall), when home owners have called me to come out and look at the "Wood floor" that they uncovered, as they were remodeling their Sear's Kit homes or stick build farm houses built in the late 40's and 50's.
Usually they were wondering how to account for the "shrinkage" between the floor boards, and that even sanding the plank floor with 120 grit sand paper belts on the floor sanders still left "pills" on the floor surface, and lastly, they had never seen wood plank floors that had been installed diagonally - and was that typical to that area?
Well if you don't already know - these well intensioned folks had removed the existing finished floor and underlayment, (probably 3/4" plywood), right down to the sub-floor - which they mis-took for the original wood floor. (Finish sanding "pilled" because the sub-floor planking was "soft wood" probably fir, hemlock, or spruce; and not hard wood flooring such as oak or maple.
Adhesive removal:
Materials you will need:
1. Buy a heat gun & extension cord, and a broom handle and a roll of duct tape, and a paint scraper.
2. Purchase a couple of gallons of paste type paint/adhesive remover and a couple or cheap brushes and a throw away roller and paint pan set.
3. Purchase a steel bladed ice scraper, (looks like a hoe thats been straightened out). See if the Hardware Store can put a fair edge on the ice scraper for you - I would think they have a grinder - you dont want a knife edge - but almost.
4. Paint solvent - for clean up. HD Rubber Glovers that go up to your elbows Eye Goggles. Knee Pads. Dust Mask & Filters. 30 Gal Metal Garbage Can. 5 gal Shop Vac.
5. Rags - Get lots. News papers & String, (to collect adheve remover scrapings in - the remover will not eat the paper - but it will desolve plastic). Heavy Duty Plastic trash bags.
Let's start:
Before you begin I suggest you set up a staging area - peferably a room about 10" square that you can caover the floor with a tarp, - taped down at the edges - where you can store your supplies on plywood and your work clothes, and where you can change into and out of your work clothers AND WORK SHOES., this is also where you can keep your shop vacumn. and METAL Garbage can.
Now begin:
1. Take up old carpet. By using rented Vibratory Carpet Remover. Get all the adhesive you can - but remember the 4 hour rental block of time your on!
2. Vacumn work area.
3. Tape heat gun to broom handle. (Save that back), plug heat gun into extension cord then into power. use heat gun to heat up any clumps of adhesive residue or rubber backing that the vibratory stripper left behind . Takes a little practice - try high heat from about 4" - with the other person with the scraper testing the material evey second or so until you get a knack for it - remember your not only removing the remains of the adheive - but you do not want to burn the board.
4. Either this works for you or it dose'nt, remember we still have the chemical stripper to go, and the the sanding & refinishing.
5. The last bit of adhesive removal to do befor sanding is with the paste chemical stripper. I suggest working an area about 3 - 4 ft square - following manufacture's instructions.
6. If you put ANY material in the Garbage can that contains solvent or stripper from a days or nights work - make sure that the garbage can goes outside and is set away from the house and other buildings - in the shade - until you start working again - no project is worth burning the house down!
Good luck, I'm pulling for you.
2 ways
go to hardware store and rent a machine that scrapes up the old carpet probably 25 dollars for half a day,but I only recommend that if it is real hard to get up.
2nd way is to buy a box cutter and be sure to get extra razor blades and depending on how hard it is to get up,cut the carpet in strips.ex. foot wide or maybe two foot wide and it should pull right up...
Try Oops. This will get literally ANYTHING up that you need cleaned. I think it will work just fine on this.
Hope it works!
ok you get a hammer and use it on the end and pull on it.(am i smart or what?!i am only 7 years old and know that?!)
use a heat gun to soften the glue just dont leave the gun on the carpet to long. use it like a hair dryer. This worked for me real well.
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