Remove glue for/from carpet padding from wood floors
 

Is there a good, non-destructive way to remove the glue used when putting carpet padding down from a wood floor?

I've pulled up most of the carpet and padding from the upstairs from our new/old home. The floors underneath are in pretty good shape, but around the perimeter of the rooms is a bit of glue. It's clearish, and looks more glossy that the wood and in some places is tacky to the touch. In some places there's still a little padding stuck to the glue. Any know successful methods (other than sandpaper/refinishing the floors)?

I found one thing online that said they had good luck using ammonia and water.

I forgot to take pics

Depends on the composition of the glue, any idea when it was put down? Was it put down on bare wood or is there a finish?

Dry stuff might come up using a paint scraper and a little elbow grease to chip or flake it off.

The wood is finished and the finish is in pretty good shape.

I'm going to guess that the carpet was put down maybe 10-15 years ago. It seems like high quality stuff too. The padding seems denser and better than most padding that I've pulled up and the carpet is also a higher quality carpet than most. The glue is definitely not going to flake off. It's still tacky in spots, it seems thin, and maybe a little gooey.

Try any and everything in a small area. Wood damage can result.

Heat with blow dryer and scrap with plastic putty knife. Dry ice, WD 40, hot water, steaming wet towel, alcohol, laundry soap, etc.

Three things I'd start with (in an inconspicuous spot): Warm soapy water, WD40, and mineral spirits. If there's a closet, try there. If there's any way to get any of it off with some careful scraping that'll expedite the process.

Don't know about the ammonia angle, I'd try a strong vinegar/water solution before that, personally.

There is a closet, good call on that.

I use Bostic ultimate adhesive remover, a putty knife, paper towels, rubber gloves and elbow grease. Never use water on hardwood flooring. I'll go through more than a roll of paper towels in just one room. Cleaning that gooey pad glue with a rag will just smear that nasty stuff forever. Open a window and set up an exhaust fan. There's no easy way but this works the best.

I've done this and mineral spirits worked well in my case. Depends entirely on what finish is on the existing floor. If alcohol makes the finish soft, it's a shellac. Lacquer thinner will make waterborne finishes soft. When I say 'soft', I mean it will damage the finish. Mineral spirits won't hurt an oil based finish but can leave a smell.

It could get expensive using Goo Gone, but it's worth a lick in the closet and it's good stuff to have on hand anyway.

Scraping would be my last choice due to scratching potential. But, when you get the glue off you'll want to clean and wax the floors with a power buffer. Plenty of YouTubes on that. That will polish and even out the sheen.

I'd use my NON-acetone nail polish remover on a tiny area as a test spot first. I use a paper towel or old tee....

It's what I always have on hand :D

edited....and Goo Gone ;)

My question is why did the knuckleheads use glue on a wood floor? Staples is the norm. Plus 1 on mineral spirits.

The finish on that Hardwood floor is not shellac unless an unknowing bone head applied it. If that's the case (which i doubt), it's time to sand and refinish anyway so don't waste your time cleaning the adhesive. It should be a Uerathane finish and lacquer thinner will damage it. Mineral spirits will cut it but too slow. I do this for a living so time is money. Use the Bostik ultimate if you want to save yourself some pain. I get it at my supply house but I'm sure you can find it on line. At least they didn't staple the pad down, thats good. When installing carpet we usually we only use pad glue over concrete or tile where staples won't work. Nine out of ten times people cover a hardwood floor with carpet to cover a f'd up floor. Its cheaper to carpet than to refinish. You're lucky the hardwood is in good shape

Thanks all for the suggestions

I don't know the date of the house but shellac and wax was the finish done on all wood floors (if not just wax alone) until good varnishes and particularly urethanes showed up commercially. Old varnishes could delay a house's construction by days if not a week or so. Shellacs and wax is fast and easy. It's still on my original floors in my 90 YO house.

I just keep it waxed.

I'm pretty sure the floors were refinished at some point. I spoke to some folks that bought the house in the early 90s and stayed there for about 5 years. I think they put a ton of time and energy into rennovating (but keeping mostly originalish). Then I think since then, someone else came in and made a few changes. I've seen some stuff on the floors that look like someone came in with a machine or belt sander and sanded and refinished. So whatever is on the floors is probably whatever was the norm in the last 30 years.

We still delay other work done inside for a week with urethane. Can't have foot prints on the sanded floor and then I like to give the finish a couple days to harden before traffic.
Amazing you have the original 90 year old finish on your floor, pretty cool

Is it double sided tape you're dealing with? I'd try goo gone or a heat gun and then goo gone to remove the remainder.

Nope, definitely glue.

I think I'd go the Wd40 route. Most of the stuff like goo gone or anything that will soften the glue much will also soften the coating on the floor and you'll likely dull it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1610992292.jpg
This is what it is. Is it around the perimeter in a cork screw pattern? That's because we poke a hole in the lid and walk around the room dribbling it out. Nasty stuff. Use the Bostic ultra. Goo gone and Goof off could damage the finish

We used to use mineral spirits like naptha if it was still wet. There is an orange based cleaner that will get the glue up and shouldn't hurt the finish, but I don't remember the name. I haven't done commercial flooring in 20 years.

When the adhesive is still wet, mineral spirits, orange cleaner (without pumice), wd40, will all work. This glue was wet for a few minutes years ago, now it's gummy. All those solvents will work even now but you might be scrubbing for a very long time. We use this adhesive because it grabs instantly and can stretch the carpet in right away and not stretch the pad with it over the tack strip. I don't think you can even buy this adhesive other than at a flooring supply house. Highly stinky and flammable when wet and difficult to remove when set. Bostik makes the best adhesives for flooring and they make the best solvent for removing old adhesive

WD40 or similar also Goof Off or the other one.

Chemically that stuff isn't far removed from contact cement. We always stapled the pad when possible.

It's around the perimeter, yes. I don't remember if I noticed that it was or was not in a corkscrew pattern. Thanks for the advice!

The problem with something like WD40 which probably contains silicone is that it will really play havoc with any refinishing. You'll have fisheyes galore.

Over the years due to retirements or moving, I have had to change who I used for floor refinishing many times. I'm a big proponent of screening an existing finish and reapplying a new coat. Most of my guys would refuse because they had no way of knowing whether something like Mop 'n Glow was used on the floor. The synthetics in some so called floor polishes just won't come out all the way.

I had to take personal responsibility and guarantee the pay to get anyone to even take a shot. It always worked for me if we did it right which is pretty labor intensive. But if a floor has been sanded before, it starts to get thin, The common 3/8ths hardwood used in post WWII tract homes was good for one sanding only (by a pro). The next time if some fool tries for a 3-peat, you'll see the heads of the nails. Other heavier flooring will take an additional sanding or 2 but all wood floors ALWAYS have to be thoroughly investigated before any work begins.

I've been around this stuff for 50+ years and I can't begin to count the gentlemen I have worked with that are dead long ago. I learned everything from men my father's age. Or even older when I first started out. Lot of WWII vets came back and went into the trades. A good deal of them got building experience in the military.

There were actually apprentices back then. Can you imagine? Today an apprenticeship is 3 weeks. I'll leave electricians out of that, but there are plenty of hacks in that trade as well.

Sandpaper and refinishing.

Rent one from your FLHIS.

If I knew a tiny bit of what you know...

I use a heat gun (hot air) and a paint scraper for jobs like this. You'll find the glue becomes very manageable with a bit of heat. Plus it's fast.

Good luck.

Just keep asking. Someone here will always have a good answer. You just have to confirm what you're being told.

If it's old school top nail the oak strip started out as 5/16" thickness. And yes, you can maybe get a couple of re finishes out of it but that's it. When "shiners" appear they can be re set (by hand) one time only. Twice and there's not enough board meat for the nails to hold it down. If it's 3/4" T&G you have 1/4" to start with (below that you run into the T&G) but it's installed with hidden cleats at the top of the tongue and can be re finished several times. Silicon based solvents won't leave fish eyes unless the wood has been sanded raw beforehand (you would never do that). We use the 220v drum sander at 45° both ways then straight grain sand. If done by an experienced finisher the floor comes out perfectly flat that way. A heat gun can be useful to remove pad cement as the adhesive is heat sensitive but i can usually remove it fastest with a putty knife and Bostik solvent. There's more than one way to skin a cat but there's always the fastest way and every job is slightly different than the last. I'm a licensed flooring contractor and started doing this crap in '69. Too dumb to do anything else.
Absolutely worth it to try and save the finish on this floor if you can. I charge min. $5. a square foot to make it perfect again

Yep, and I assume that I've gotten a couple/few good answers, and maybe one or two that will work for my particular situation. I'm sure it varies by wood, finish, etc....

Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions.

On a vaguely related note, almost all of the doorways downstairs (no glue there) have a threshold which is something that the wife and I aren't used to. I assume it was normal with an old home. The threshold is a little wider than the wall with beveled edges.

I like the fact that they are all worn, some more than others due to being walked on. The nail heads are protruding, but even those appear rounded and polished.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1611181927.jpg

Then we've got this spot (dining to front hall) where I'm fairly certain there was a normal door/doorway, but now there's a 60" opening. We were initially fooled thinking that maybe it was a colonnade, because there are others, but when I looked at the floor, it looks to me like there was a narrow door.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1611181927.jpg

and this bit of unfortunate flooring which almost perfectly bisects the front hall from the front door back to the colonnade.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1611181927.jpg

I tracked down the folks that owned the place in the early 90s. They told me that the west side of the down stairs had originally been 2 rooms, but sometime since then, someone took the wall down so it's one long room. At the same time, I think they tried to reproduce the colonnade that's in the middle of the hall and another leading into the front room. It's good, but not great. In person, the color looks pretty good, but in the photo below you can tell that the color is off. Also, the profile of the column is similar, but it's smaller and not exactly the same.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1611197709.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1611197709.jpg

I'm pretty sure it's 3/4" T&G.

That looks like 1x4 (3/4" thick) fir. The patina and natural distress is very cool and appears quite fitting to your beautiful old home. People pay me big bucks to replicate what you have! that line of butt joints from wall removal can be improved upon. You could just cut an inch out and inset a strip of walnut or rose wood, do the same all around and your hall has a period correct border. I've done it many times and its about the only solution besides replacement. You'll like it. And I wouldn't touch the raised thresholds or worry about shading differences, that's called character. All very cool

Thanks, I also like the patina. Interesting, good to know about the repair of the butt joints.

I'm not entirely sure that the flooring isn't also what was used for the shiplap on the walls.

You should try one of those rubber eraser things that go in as a drill bit. They seem to do a good job.

I'd be careful with GooGone and Goof Off. They work great most of the time but at times will leave stains or strip farther down than wanted.

Peanut butter is also an option. Seriously

I think there may be a support cripple wall under that hallway seam. It seems to heave up a bit and w/o the previous load, it would do just that. Greg's idea about running feature strips may be a good save but that portion of the floor would have to be re-laid if I lived there. Not a bad job, I just wove in about 12 sq ft where an old floor heated lived. Visitors say they can't tell but since I did it, it's a bit obvious to me.

But, I didn't re-sand. I pulled enough floor out of a closet to do it so the finish is the same. There is a place near me that when they pull up an old floor, they keep most of it in a huge shed. So if I need some floor strips, I can usually find some there same thickness and same shade of stain or no stain.

RE: the new column, that difference is exactly the difference between how people stain today vs. when the house was built. To make any finish approximate an old finish, the last thing you would do is apply stain first. Original stains were more like today's gel stains but still done differently on case work like that.

The cliff notes are put a dye stain in shellac and build up the tone until it's where you want/like. First coat is a thinned out shellac sealer with no stain. Amber shellac is good for this along with aniline dyes.

It's not, it's tongue and groove

I get what you're saying. In a closet under the stairs is what I believe is some of the old original walls that are exposed, and surprisingly, they are tongue and groove, not simple lap. So I guess I shouldn't call the walls shiplap.

The bottom edge of the wood where it's raw (vs green) is where the old baseboard covered. When I felt that bottom edge, it's the groove side. So, I guess the entire downstairs was 3/4" T&G. The board widths on the walls (where there's no drywall) and the ceiling (where there's no drywall) and the floors, are all the same width.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1611288720.jpg

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the rubber drill erasers. I assume the peanut butter works mostly because of the oil content.

Support cripple wall?

Yes, I'm pretty sure the missus would prefer that I "fix" the floor so it looks uniform. My question about that is what do you do with the ends? Aren't they also T&G? If you cut some wood out, then do you get that T&G back or ...?

Interesting, good to know. So you pull from a closet, those blend in, and then you replace the stuff in the closet with something that may not match as well, but in the closet it's not as important?

Thanks