Getting up glue from carpet/padding

[Monte Milanuk]

So... putting laminate flooring in throughout the house. This weekend we started on the master bedroom, the last room in the house with carpet in it. When we started pulling the carpet up, we found that unlike the other bedrooms, in this one the previous owner put down a foam pad underneath. And in the other rooms he used plain yellow glue - but in this one he used what I'm guessing is tar-based adhesive - the brown stuff - and it is still *very* sticky after at least 12-15 years. We rented a power scraper from HD, and it made getting the pad up much easier (still a massive pain in the backside).

The problem is it didn't get up all the glue off the sub floor. The whole room is like one big sticky mouse trap. I'm not sure a sander is the answer, as I think a belt or disk would clog up in about 30 seconds flat with this stuff. I tried some flooring mastic/adhesive remover from HD... didn't really do squat.

At this point I'm starting to seriously consider putting down sheets of 1/8 hardboard, smooth side down, as a buffer so that we can put the flooring in. The laminate sections need to be able to move at least a little to be able to get them locked together, and with the floor this tacky, that ain't happening as is.

Any other constructive suggestions or ideas?

[Tom Ewell]

Most laminate floors I've put down go over a thin cushioning/sound deadening pad, unless the mastic is significantly lumpy I would expect the pad would isolate the laminate.
I suspect even a layer of plastic, resin paper or something like ram board would work, especially if your laminate already has cushion backer applied.
I believe there are also some encapsulating water based primers that might be effective too, haven't used them myself, however.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I'd pull the baseboards and lay down sheets of 1/4" underlayment rather than go through the hassle od trying to get all the mastic up.

[Monte Milanuk]

Most laminate floors I've put down go over a thin cushioning/sound deadening pad, unless the mastic is significantly lumpy I would expect the pad would isolate the laminate.
I suspect even a layer of plastic, resin paper or something like ram board would work, especially if your laminate already has cushion backer applied.
I believe there are also some encapsulating water based primers that might be effective too, haven't used them myself, however.

The laminate we went with has its own attached foam underlayment. Originally we had thought about putting down additional underlayment (basically foam sheeting) in one room due to noise concerns (directly over another occupied space) but were advised not to, as two layers tended to flex too much and/or slip around. I think we can rule out the second issue on this one!

Actually... I have a big roll of heavy duty resin paper that the previous owner left. Not sure what it was used for originally, but I've used it for laying down on top of the bench or table saw when finishing to protect the top, and it works great for that. I'm guessing it - or something like it, not sure if I have enough left for the entire room - would work great.

Thanks for the ideas!

[Rich Engelhardt]

Just a word of caution about the mastic....

I had a wall of 12"x12" cork panels that the homeowner had glued up at some point in the past of a house we renovated in 2009.

Like a complete idiot, I sanded down the mastic with a 1/3 sheet B&D sander after scraping off as much of the mastic as I could. I should have worn a mask - - but - -like an idiot..

The day I did that, I started to cough and I never stopped.
I'm on oxygen now and I have end stage COPD.
I'm pretty sure that I killed myself that day by being - - an idiot.

[Brian Tymchak]

I've never heard of gluing the pad or carpet. That has to be a real mess. Why would anyone do that?

[Monte Milanuk]

Yikes! Sorry to hear that :(

The resin paper seems to be doing the trick - I can move around without sticking in one place if I stand still more than a few seconds :/

[Monte Milanuk]

I've never heard of gluing the pad or carpet.

This house is my first time pulling up carpet, so no idea if this is 'normal' or if the previous owner was just dingy ;)


That has to be a real mess.

Yes, yes it is.

347921

(those are my wife's shoes left behind as they stuck to the floor...


Why would anyone do that?

Doesn't everyone assume the floor they're putting down is the *last* one that will ever be in the house... :rolleyes:

[Jim Becker]

I've never heard of gluing the pad or carpet. That has to be a real mess. Why would anyone do that?
I had that situation in my previous home and you're right...it was a mess when I had to rip the carpet out. Big time.

[Monte Milanuk]

The other two bedrooms had carpet, but no pad, and were glued with traditional yellow glue. Rough and nasty to kneel on once the carpet was up - probably should have sanded it down - but pretty sure that the laminate and its underlayment ain't gonna move with that under. Still, it wasn't *that* bad. This tar based stuff... don't know if it's supposed to be still this tacky after this long, but it's kinda crazy. The parts of the room (walk-in closet) where we couldn't maneuver the big power scraper we rented... are getting a working over with the scraper blade on my Bosch cordles multi-tool. Thank goodness for that speed charger ;)