How does one remove smeared construction adhesive from vinyl plank flooring?

[Randall J Cox]

This is along shot but you never know... Flooring guys had to use a lot of Liquid Nails construction adhesive to install a bull nose edge when putting down new vinyl plank flooring. I had to rip a bunch of 3/16" thick small plywood strips to go under the bull nosing for them. They had to use a lot of construction adhesive to fill the gap and thought they wiped it up what squished out when they pressed it down, but left very visible smears (in the right light refection) when it dried. It was water soluble before it dried, certainly not now. Anybody have any experience on how to clean this off the vinyl planks without damaging the planks? You can only see it when the light hits it right, not obvious the rest of the time. Know this is not a pure woodworking Q, but need any ideas. Randy PS the installers are not returning phone calls....

[Brian Behrens]

I have vinyl plank flooring in my shop. Glue does not stick to it very well. Whenever I drop yellow glue, I just let it dry, and it pops right off with a chisel, leaving no residue behind. You can try a sharp chisel at a low angle and I bet it will flake right off. If not try vinegar and a scotchbrite pad. Let the vinegar soak on it for a while first

[Paul F Franklin]

https://www.liquidnails.com/how-to/how-to-remove-construction-adhesives

Sounds like mineral spirits is not recommended on vinyl, but you could try the petroleum jelly they suggest.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Sounds like mineral spirits is not recommended on vinylCorrect - mineral spirits may damage it...then again, maybe not. Best advice would be to try any and every thing on a scapr piece to test it.

I managed to get some Waterborne floor poly on some vinyl floor tiles. Before I could stop her, my wife used some Goof Off ( a petroleum based solvent - stronger than moineral spirits) on the tile. It worked fine & didn't damage the vinyl.

If solvents do damage the tile, then you might give dry ice a shot. Dry ice can make the adhesive so brittle it breaks off.

I've had a lot of luck with dry ice & dried construction adhesive.

[Richard Coers]

Who hired the installers, you or the flooring company. If the flooring company did, that's where the phone calls have to start.

[Tom Bender]

Maybe just ignore it.

[Peter Kuhlman]

Is this on a transition from vinyl to another flooring type?
No way adhesive should have been used around the perimeter of the room on the planks as the floor has to be able to move with any temperature changes. Any transition moulding has to be carefully glued down to the sub floor with none of the glue also touching the planks.
I sure hope they didn’t glue the planks to the edge moulding as this will give major problems later. Sounds to me like the installers had minimal experience with installing vinyl plank. I installed lots of this stuff and love it but it is critical to allow the floor to move. On concrete floor in Louisiana my flooring would easily expand and contract 3/8” which could cause the planks to buckle or separate. If glued there would have been major problems.

[lowell holmes]

Try one of these.

https://www.harborfreight.com/razor-blade-scraper-98039.html

https://www.homedepot.com/s/razor%2520blade%2520scraper?NCNI-5

[Randall J Cox]

I have since found out that Krud Kutter will take off dried construction adhesive. Haven't tried it yet, says specifically that it takes it off and won't hurt vinyl. The installers are supposed to bring some out and clean it up. I might test on a couple of left over pieces to make sure it won't hurt vinyl. The planking was not glued down to the floor. The edge bullnosing was glued down, we have a 35 year old home with a sunken living room. Randy