Removing Glued Down Carpet Padding

Sharing a tutorial on the most effective way to remove glued down carpet after testing five different methods.

Removing glued down carpet padding.

The padding may have been glued or stapled to the floor. Carpet adhesives manufactured in the 1980s or earlier may contain asbestos a known. Step 1 scraping the carpet glue. The scraper can easily remove big chunks of the glue which helps get the job done more easily later.

Remove as much of the carpet glue as possible by scraping it using a razor blade scraper. Pulling up the carpet and scraping underneath with a paint scraper to beak the glue bond is tedious work and wetting the carpet to loosen the adhesive may cause it to break into pieces. I am going to be laying down peel and stick vinyl tiles down over wood floors but first i need to get the padding up off the floor. Boiling water will soften up hard to remove glue.

Sweep the areas of the floor from which you able to remove the loose larger pieces of carpet pad. As i shared a few weeks ago when we began pulling up the carpet in our family room we were met with a most unfortunate surprise under the carpet and carpet pad was another layer of carpet. Trying to pull it up just results in ripping off a little bit leaving some of it glued to the floor. Carpet installers use strong mastic that doesn t deteriorate when they glue down carpets and they often use more than is really needed both of which spell bad news for you when you want to remove the carpet.

Over several years it may have bonded to the polyurethane. Step 2 use boiling water. Before moving forward take note. Going to tear up the carpet pad and put in hardwood.

The pad however has been glued down and it isn t your normal pad. In the end the manual method for removing carpet glue may be your best bet. Return to the corner of the room where you began and get down on all fours. Here are several tips to remove carpet padding to avoid damaging your flooring.

Carpet glue is an incredibly strong adhesive designed to fix rolls of carpet to concrete floors. It s the same thickness give or take but more like moderately dense foam. Throw away the debris.