How can I remove carpet glue from my concrete basement floor?

Question

I had berber carpet in the basement and had to remove it. To my dismay, the concrete floor underneath is now covered in glue. What must I do to remove the glue? I am looking for an easy solution, regardless of cost. (other than paying someone else to do it, of course)

Answer 1

Like DIY Doc said -- avoid solvents -- at best they'll just soften the adhesive and make a bigger mess. This requires mechanical removal - scraping or grinding.

If the original carpet was installed with padding under it, you probably have snail trails of a rubbery glue zig-zagging around the room. If the carpet was applied directly to the concrete, it's probably a hard mastic-like adhesive (sort of a yellowish-off-white color).

For the rubbery stuff you'll need a scraper with a thin, replaceable, razor-like blade. These come in both a short handled version you use on your hands and knees, and a long handled version you use standing up. The short handled version has a thinner, sharper blade and does a more thorough removal. But the long handled version is a lot easier on your body. You can also use a disc sander with a coarse grit sand paper - but you'll go through a lot of sand paper this way. FYI- the short handled scraper usually comes with spare blades stashed inside the handle - easy to miss if you don't know to look there.

For the hard, thick adhesive, you'll need a heavier scraper (but not the thick bladed ones intended for tile removal - the blades on those aren't sharp enough to cut the adhesive). You can use the long handled scraper described above, but he best/fastest tool for this is a pneumatic scraper. Using an air compressor, the pneumatic scraper works kind of like a jack hammer and does most of the work for you. You can rent them at HomeDepot or your local rental yard.

Scraping will get you to a smooth floor, ready for new tile/carpet/wood. But if you need BARE concrete because you want to stain or paint/epoxy it, you're going to need a concrete floor grinder. A concrete floor grinder uses either carbide cutting bits or carbide abrasive pucks to literaly grinds away a thin layer of concrete, along with whatever's stuck to it. It's extremely noisy and dusty, but if you need to take the floor to bare concrete, it's your tool. There are two types. The larger one uses a machine just like the commercial floor buffers you see janitors using, but with a special plate that holds the cutters. For spot work, there's also a smaller one that looks like a router on steroids. If your entire floor is covered with adhesive, you'll need the big buffer model. If you've got the snail trails, either model will work, but the hand-held model will be less messy because you're only grinding a 4" swath instead of the 20" of the bigger model. You may have to call around to find a rental yard that has a floor grinder -- 2 of my 4 local HomeDepot's rent them.

P.S. Manually scraping is HARD work - it's tough to put in a full day scraping (and it *will* take days). Unless it has to be done right now, consider working at it an hour each evening after work -- or better yet, recruit the whole family and take turns at it. If you go with the grinder, plan on a day to a day and a half to do a 400sf room.

Answer 2

Carpet Glue

Answer 3

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RE:
How can I remove carpet glue from my concrete basement floor?
I had berber carpet in the basement and had to remove it. To my dismay, the concrete floor underneath is now covered in glue. What must I do to remove the glue? I am looking for an easy solution, regardless of cost. (other than paying someone else to do it, of course)

Answer 4

I,m trying to remove old carpet glue from a concrete floor at the moment.I,ve tried a mixture of things.What is working best is grade 60 sand paper on an orbital sander and scraping with an old wood chisel.Its a horrible dusty job doing about 1sqm an hour. Don,t use paint remover, it doesn,t help and just makes a mess.

Answer 5

With all due respect to the first few answers, I suggest DO NOT use any solvents. It will add to your labor and mess.

I was just in HD yesterday, and have a similar issue with 11,000 sq. ft. of tile; initially Poorly installed by another contractor.

HD sells a large variety of heavy duty floor scrapers; and many of them work quite well; as long as the scraper operator puts in the effort. The labeling even states what the best use for each tool happens to be.

Steven Wolf

Answer 6

Use a heat gun if you have one; or rent one; Try a hair dryer first on high heat setting; Vinegar dissolves some glue try that first get it a the Dollar store; slosh it on with a map wait awhile and see what happens. If all this fails, go to Lowes or Home Depot and ask them to recommend something.You can also try Google; Rubber back carpet remover.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

I think you need a good solvent such as acetone you can buy it in a hardware store, I'd try Big Woolworth's it would be cheaper! Before you buy, try a little bit of your wife's nail polish, that's acetone, if it dissolves it, then buy a can! you might have to purchase a cheap scraper too! just to hurry the job up. Have a good day.

Answer 9

Try hiring and industrial strength steaming machine.

Answer 10

try hot soapy water and some elbow grease