"Out, damn carpeting!" says Spot.

March 12, 2009 9:24 AM

I need some suggestions for removing glued-on indoor/outdoor carpeting.

The animal shelter with which I volunteer is has a building with carpeting that has been glued over linoleum tiling, over concrete.
This carpeting must be removed to make the building useful for their purposes. All attempts to remove it have been fruitless so far, including brute pulling and solvents (WD-40, FWIW). The glue is thick, brown and very brittle, and the linoleum is ancient and crumbly. Removing just the carpet is good, also removing the linoleum would be ok.
The local flooring place has quoted them an exorbitant price for doing this. Anybody have any ideas for removing these layers with as little effort as possible? Solvents to try? We can get our hands on as many volunteers as needed. C'mon, MeFites, I've bragged about y'all's amazing ability to solve all manner of problems in short order.

posted by thebrokedown to grab bag (10 comments total)

manual floor scraper

power floor scraper
posted by buggzzee23 at 9:31 AM on March 12

I would say you need something like this. A long handled heavy metal blade scraper and some smaller razor scrapers for the final clean up. (I know nothing about that site, but any hardware store will carry both) You use the bigger scrapers to bust the flooring free of the adhesive, it's not easy or quick but that's why volunteers were invented. The local flooring place probably uses these or a motor driven version (which you could look into renting), and the price is high for the man hours involved. Did you ask them to discount or donate services to your organization?
posted by Science! at 9:35 AM on March 12

In my experience the answer is long handled floor scrapers with replaceable blades and a hell of a lot of elbow grease.

Cut the carpet in strips and have one person jam the scraper under the carpet while another person (or two) pulls the carpet up. The width of the strips depends on how tough it is to take up. I have had to cut it only as wide as the scraper itself.

You'll want gloves with a good grip and volunteers with good backs.
posted by ODiV at 9:37 AM on March 12

You need to determine whether the linoleum (is it sheeting or tile) contains asbestos. And if the flooring is asbestos-free, the adhesive fastening it to the substrate may very well contain asbestos, especially if it's old.

If it is in bad shape, there is a good chance of an asbestos fiber release, which, while that level of exposure will not kill anyone, it's never a good thing to inhale those fibers.

(Plus, as an employer or public agency, the shelter could get in a LOT of hot water, legally, if there is asbestos involved.)

The testing would be between one and two hundred dollars, probably, and you can find someone to do it in the phone book.
posted by Danf at 9:44 AM on March 12

Oh, boy, Danf, hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the warning.
posted by thebrokedown at 9:47 AM on March 12

It is more cost effective to just pull up a sub floor and replace the subfloor rather than scrape the linoleum and carpet off. I'm adding that here in case future DIYers read this. But since you don't have a subfloor you will have to use a linoleum scraper. You should have a floor scraping party.
posted by cda at 12:15 PM on March 12

You should have a floor scraping party.

Having worked long hours as a floor installers apprentice, I think this is a fantastic idea. Some floors scrape up very easily, but most of the time it's backbreaking labor for a single person to do alone. Add a bunch of friends (and a bunch of rented scrapers), and you can get everything done in no time.
posted by coolguymichael at 12:39 PM on March 12

Heat may help. See if that brown, brittle adhesive reacts to a heat gun by softening.
posted by werkzeuger at 4:26 PM on March 12

FWIW, WD-40 is not a solvent, it's very runny oil with with even runnier oil added as an oil solvent. Great for cleaning old oil, passable for temporary water removal and penetrating dry seized joints, totally useless in this situation (as it is in most other situations people use the stuff).

I'd be pulling up both at the same time (I see danf has already mentioned the asbestos issue) - the ancient lino will help hold the old carpet together, and the old carpet will help hold the ancient & crumbling lino tiles together. What you use to do this will depend on the surface (OK, concrete), and what you're going to use for the new surface. If you were going to leave the concrete bare or seal/epoxy it, then I'd find out what sort of glue was used (a proper flooring store, e.g. not Home Depot should be able to tell you what sort of solvent you'll need based on a sample of the old stuff). If you're just going to put some other surface down over the concrete, I'd (i.e. your 'many volunteers' ;-) scrape it with a floor scraper & no solvent.

Personally, I'd avoid solvents unless the new finish requires a smooth clean(ish) surface - it won't penetrate far enough to magically lift the old surface away in nice easy pieces, you'll still have to be in there scraping it up, and the combination of solvent fumes + now-sticky old glue is just a nasty environment to be working in. Heat may help, depending on the old glue, and I'd give it a go it you have a heat gun handy, but otherwise I'd use the many hands + elbow grease method.
posted by Pinback at 5:46 PM on March 12

Since the carpet was glued to the tile floor, I am assuming that you are planning on taking the tile floor up as well? I used to lay floor years back and I can tell you that short of elbow grease, there really isn't any way of getting the tile (and carpet in your case) up without using some muscle. This is why flooring people charge so much for doing this.

If the Home Depot in your area has a tool rental shop like ours does, they can rent you a flooring remover. It's basically a bladed scraper built onto the end of an electric motor which vibrates and slices between the tile and the concrete. These machines are heavy and very labor intensive, but they are better than doing it with a hand scaper. Good luck!
posted by TxSprinklers at 2:47 PM on March 30