What's the best way to get rid of the pieces of carpet padding that are stuck to my floor?

Question

I just pulled up some carpet in my house, and the padding underneath it has disintegrated and left some sticky, nasty crap behind on the hardwood floor. Is there an easy way to get this off so that I don't have to spend an entire Saturday night scraping every square inch with a putty knife?

Answer 1

I know of a couple ways you can go. 1. use a ship scrapper which is a scraper with a long handle so you do not have to be on your ands and knees. 2. rent a sander from a rental store and sand it off.

Answer 2

a very sharp putty knife or a flat garden blade will get under the pad and help you scrape it off. Remember, some types of carpet padding are "glue down". Otherwise, maybe it was from a bad spill.

After all the material is up, you may need to use a solvent to dissolve the epoxy or other sticky material that remains on the floor.

Answer 3

We did the same thing in our house. We had to use a sander. One with a light grit. It made it allot easier to get that little bit of tacky stuff up. Just be careful to not scrap to hard or you will leave grooves in the hardwood underneath.

Answer 4

try vinegar in warm water it smells abit but the acid in it breaks down most glues/pastes.
and get a 4 inch scraper and some strong tape( eg. duck tape or insullation tape) and tape it to your brush/broom handle to save your back! hope this helps

Answer 5

lots of the time the froth is placed down with staples. look intently on the piece of froth and notice if there is not any longer a staple keeping it down. a pair of diagonal pliers works incredibly lots for eliminating them.

Answer 6

You can use the product Goof Off...works awesome! Pour on spots and you can wipe off with damp sponge