How do you remove rubber rug backing on sub floor?

Question

We have a rug in the kitchen that is 40 years old and needs to come up and when we tried picking it up all the rubber backing is coming off and sticking to the subfloor and we want to know what to use as we are going to put down tiles.

Answer 1

You need a good floor scraper.... the type you want, looks like a hoe (long handle like a shovel), but instead of the bend in the neck, like a hoe would have, it is straight.

Then you just apply lots of elbow grease, hehehe

The old carpet seperating from its rubber backing is normal.... and quite messy... Wear dust masks, as you will stir up some dust scraping the old backing up off the floor.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

If you are going to put vinyl tiles on the floor, why not scrape up as much of the old backing and put luaun plywood over the old floor so you end up with a very smooth surface to start with. That way you won't have any irregularities in the floor. It isn't that expensive to do especially since the new floor will last for many years and you'd be doing it the right way. Pete

Answer 3

To remove the residue, rub vegetable oil into the area and let it sit, it should rub right off without any damage to your floor. To keep it from happening again, use a rug liner, most are very inexpensive. Hope this helps!

Answer 4

If you are going to use tiles over this area just scrape the area flat down to the wood.

Answer 5

A sidewalk ice scraper works well for this project.

Answer 6

yeah that happens a lot with the pads usually its from stuff spilling on it... just rip up what you can and the take a razor scraper to it