What is the best way to get old carpet padding off of hardwood?

Question

I've been using a 1 inch hand scraper, and it's taking FOREVER!!
It's very old padding, very hard.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You sure have a hard job on your hands.
Here is the Bad news:
no matter what way you do it, if you are planning on leaving the hardwood floor natural, you are going to end up having to refinish the floor.
Try these;
use the scraper you are using, or an ice scraper with a long handle works well, but you have to be careful of gouging the wood which ever of these you try.
You can mix vinegar and water 3parts to 1 part and soak the padding, the vinegar will delute the glue of the padding and make it plyable to scrape off the rest of the way,
You can try wallpaper remover, this will work although it is slow in doing the job.
Hope these little tidbits help, I don't envy you your job!

Answer 2

like was mentiond before the hard wood will have to be re-finnished any way (unless youre going to carpet again) the easiest i know of would be for you to go to your local rental store and rent a floor sander ( you will need one any way to re finnish it) and some rough like 80grit or so belts (ALOT OF THEM) and rip up what you can. then just sand off the remaining gunk (being carefull not to "dig" the wood) or you can get a smaller belt sander and do the same thing, this would be safer, would not be as fast but a floor sander is a pain to control. hope this helps