How To Remove Yellow Carpet Glue or Adhesive
77Doing The Impossible - Removing That Carpet Glue From A Cement Floor.
If you have ever tried to remove that yellow carpet glue from under a wall-to-wall carpet or rug that you have removed from your floor, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know how difficult it is. I have tried just about every chemical that is available at Lowe''s. You would think that someone there would know exactly what to do to remove it, but nobody does....(I've asked) and if they do, they aren't talking. I have just gone through this dilema and you won't believe it, but I have found a fix. Actually, it was not I who found the fix, it was my neighbor, who I would refer to as "extremely intelligent." After trying many different chemicals and cleaners, including Goo-Gone (I really thought it would work), and even after trying to use a heavy duty sander (wrongly recommended to me by a carpet store) that I had to rent from a machine rental place, I came to the conclusion that it was going to be impossible to remove the carpet glue from my floor. But I was wrong. My neighbor came over with what looks like a hoe but it is really a flat scraper. She told me to boil some water and throw it on the floor. After letting it sit there for a few minutes, under the hot boiling water, say, 5 or 10 minutes, the glue becomes softer and more pliable....and only then, one is able to scrape it off. Unbelievable! No chemical would remove it....no machine would remove it (it just made the coarse sandpaper one goey, sticky mess), but hot water did the trick! I then, used the $17.00 heavy-duty hand blade scrapers that I bought at Lowe's (I would say that this was the only great purchase that I made). I thought to myself, I have to share this with everybody, with someone else who is trying to do the impossible, who right now must be yanking their hair out in frustration, or banging their head against the wall. This WILL WORK. Believe me, don't waste your time and money buy going to the hardware stores to buy more chemicals because they won't work.
Don't Bang Your Head Against The Wall...
Even Though It's The Glue From Hell
You CAN Remove That Frustrating Carpet Glue
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Comments
I am excited to try this. I ripped up my carpet last year and I love my concrete floor - but I have a strip of that yellow glue that actually came from double sticky tape. It is very flat to the floor so a razor blade may have to be used. I also wonder whether a steam cleaner might help.
If this works I'll rip up my kitchen carpet as well. Thanks!!!!!
Good Luck. I know that if it is the same stuff I've been dealing with, boiling water will work.
Speaking of concrete floors, have you seen how beautiful a stained one can be? They have all the ingredients at Lowe's to stain and beautify your concrete floor. If I can get ALL of the gunk off of my floor, I'd love to be able to stain it. The look is comparable to marble.
I've thought of staining the floor in my bathroom. Right now it's got this horrible carpet that's long past needing to be replaced but I just can't fathom putting wall-to-wall in a bathroom.
If it is horrible, just remove it. There are cheap options out there to make your floor better. You can even go to the dollar store and for $9.00 a box, you can tile your bathroom with the plastic tiles they have to offer, which are not that bad looking, and all you have to do is place them down. They already have a light adhesive on the back (nothing like the one I'm battling). They have a "wood" looking floor option, or you can choose one that looks like "marble." It is an option if you don't have the money for more expensive tiles at the moment. Of course, you can always take the tile-laying course at Lowe's and "do it yourself." But for that, I'd prefer a professional with experience.
I ended up covering whatever I could not remove (because it is really a bear to remove it), with those plastic tiles from the dollar store....Actually, the floor looks 100% better now and is "faux wood." I consider my project a success!
Does anyone know how to remove the old glue of the rug off of ply wood?
Try Goo Gone, but you'll need industrial quantities of it, I think.
added note this is how I got the carpet as well I poured boiling water on the carpet and cut it into strip
I had carpet glue on my hardwood floors, boiling water worked alright but I was uncomfortable pouring water on the hardwoods.
I ended up buying a $20 heat gun and using a plastic scraper to remove the heated glue. This worked best for me. It's time consuming, but a scrape of heated glue is cleaner that a scrape of hot and wet glue, in my experience.
Photo of my process:http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustinaskins/29156761
Dustin,
Yes, thank you for your input. It is the heat that does it, undoubtedly. Of course on wooden floors, one would not want to wet them. Bravo! I'm sure this tip will be helpful to many people. Thank you so much!
Dustin I love your photographs. You have a great eye for form and color.
im ripping up very old carpet in the bedroom and the glue is stuck on the cushion flooring how do i remove this?
Try ripping up as much as possible and then pour hot water on the glue part or you could also try a hot hair dryer....I don't know why they make the glue so permanent. The manufacturers should make it so it will come up when you want to remove the carpet. But I have found that heat is the fastest element that will make that darned glue come loose. I have tried several different solvents with no luck. Good luck with the heat. If you have found something better, let me know. Thanks for your comment/question!
I tried this~ works great! I used a long handled BBQ cleaning brush w/ scraper. That worked perfect! Thank you for your help!Heated H2O in microwave for 3 minutes.
I Have the same yellow glue in the basement. I have not tryied boiling water yet. I was wondering if a carpet cleaner steemer would do the job???
I even tried one of those professional machines and I got nowhere with it. That glue is really tough! I was banging my head against the wall just before I tried the hot water, and that DID work.
I WANT TO PULL THE CARPET FROM MY FAMILY ROOM DUE TO "CATS URINE" AND I DO HAVE GLUE ON THE CONCRETE. HOW DO I KNOW WHAT KIND OF GLUE IS ON THE CONCRETE?? I AN SO DISCUSTED W/ THIS FLOOR AND I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT EVENT COMING UP ON MAY 10. THIS IS A LARGE AREA AND I DONT WANT TO START WHAT I CANT FINISH. I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS SORT OF THING BEFORE BUT THE SMELL IS UNBEARABLE!!!! PLEASE HELP ME W/ MY DILEMA. THANK YOU, KAREN- ( CANT SPEND ANY MORE MONEY) :(
There is no sure way of knowing what kind of glue is under your carpet until you actually rip it up and look. If it is yellow, then it is probably the kind I had to deal with. Ugh. Not an easy task. Once you have removed the glue, if you need a quick fix, do what I did...I went to the dollar store and bought those plastic tiles that you can install yourself. They look and smell much better than cat urine. I have cats...I know. Those tiles are cheap....
I have the same "yellow" glue in my home upstairs. Going to try the "Boiling Water Method".
We have original hardwood (Fir - but has aged to near stone) in our 1922 approx. built home. Used same method to remove old Linoleum/vinyl flooring after removing top layer (showing paper etc.), but used a old junk towel to pour water on to control water spread. Read this a 2 1/2 years ago on a DIY site, but never tried it for the glue. I was researching how to remove Mastic glue (Black nasty stuff under tiles - found under old 70's foam rubber backed carpet, then the original wood [unstained where original carpet tiles had been], all because of decidint to put in ceramic tiles in foyer, but discovered wood. Needless to say, wood won. Will be refinishing the wood after insterior renovations are done.
Let me know how it goes.....and if you were successful. If you find a better method, let me know as well. Thanks for your comment.
okay maricarbo....so I moved into an apt. about 2 years ago that has a concrete patio, my mother, the worrier, thought it best to apply carpet-like material to the patio and went glue crazy i think (it has been so long I cant remember). well anyway, I'm not sure how fond of the idea the apt. manager will be of the carpet GLUED to the concrete patio, so I'm starting to get worried about it. I'm not moving out anytime soon, and don't want to remove it until I move out, but am curious how reliable this boiling water method actually is. I'm almost tempted not to mess with with it and ask them if they want me to keep it on there prior to leaving, because it def. is an asset to the patio. Any who, any suggestions? I don't want to have to spend a lot of money to remove it , but don't want to get a headache over this either. Mom says leave it, but I don't know how well the apt folks will fly with it? Thanks .....oh and the glue, i looked at a corner....is a hard hard hard yellow color lol. Mom says get a glue remover but after reading your post, I'm skeptic. Thanks! would love feedback....
I think your best bet is to leave it because the yellow carpet glue is a MONSTER to remove. I am suggesting the boiling water solution but that is a last resort. It takes forever and a day. Even with the boiling water it takes a lot of scraping.
If anybody has a better solution, please let us know! They should ban the yellow carpet glue. It is TOO permanent.
We have carpeting with the hated yellow glue backing it on the outdoor stairs to our patio. The gentleman we bought the house from probably installed it. Needless to say it's mildewed and disgusting, not to mention slick from the mildew.
How well does this work on outdoor (i.e. ROUGH) concrete? If I start this project, I don't want to get down to the last bit of glue and be unable to get it out of the rough concrete.
Also, any alternate suggestions? The carpet really HAS to come up, but I don't know what I could use to cover any glue that refuses to.
I removed the glue from the concrete with hot water....most of it...and I covered it up with those plastic tiles that they sell at the dollar store. The room looks good now, much better than it did with the old carpet.
Heat gun and scraper works the best for us on hardwood. Gonna take some time but the floors aren't getting torn up and it's coming up pretty easy. Set off the smoke alarm though - funny how those work sometimes.
We used an old steam iron ( clothes iron ) and warmed up the glue, then used a scraper to scrape off the old glue. Worked great ! And fairly quickly ...
Excellent! I guess it is the combination of heat with muscle and a scraper!
if your going to refinish or recarpet the floors.a good
semi gell floor stripper works very fast with minimal
scraping.you will also need some stripper pads and low odor
mineral spirits and a well ventilated area .all these
prducts can be found in the paint department of your local
home center.yes even lowes.
Jim, yes I have tried all of that and it did not work for me.
I think I have the worst case of all... We just bought a house and the previous owners tacked AND glued hideous brown carpet half-way up the walls in the living room. After we managed to tear most of the carpet off (leaving small pieces of carpet still on the walls) we still need to deal with the glue. It is yellow so I'm assuming it's similar to what everyone else is dealing with. I'm wondering if the boiling water will work since it won't be able to soak in before running down the wall. What a mess I have on my hands! :(
I ripped out three rooms of OLD carpet...there wasn't too much glue there and i scraped and etc....and assumed WRONGLY that two coats of a dark burgundy paint would cover it all...now i have 2 SHADES OF PAIN IN THE 1ST ROOM I PAINTED..one is good and where the old glue is, is much much darker so now i have to sand off all the darker areas and use one of the above methods to get the glue off...i also dont wanna wet the OLD boards.....so/ i am totallly tired of all this. thanks for the suggestions...
Rudy, They should issue a warning on the label of that glue....that it is really hard to take off. Either that, or not allow it at all. It is so hard to deal with it when you are trying to get rid of it! Good luck with it all. I'll say a prayer, Ha!
Thanks for the article. My neighbor wants me to tear up over 300 square feet of carpet on her patio. Then paint the floor. I know this carpet is glued down. I guess I'm in for some fun. Thanks again. http://zerofrictionmarketingstrategy.com
If the glue is yellow, use ammonia at full strength. Just pour it on and let it level itself out, do not spread it thin. Let it sit for 20-30 minutes, then scrape off with a heavy duty scraper. Tungsten carbide scrapers are available at Lowe's and Sherwin Williams and are worth the investment. Push/pull scrapers also work well. Ammonia is much cheaper than industrial adhesive removers. If you decide to use paint remover or industrial adhesive remover, put it on very thick and cover it with wax paper, this will prevent it from fuming as bad and drying out. It can even be left over night in this state. Use adequate ventilation and a canister type respirator when using ammonia or any industrial solvent. Once the majority of the glue is removed you can sand. Hope this helps.
I have just spent the entire past week trying to remove this nasty, yellow adhesive. Tried paint thinner, muriatic acid, everything recommended. I'm going to try the hot water and possibly ammonia as well. Right now I'm too aggravated since my arms are sore and tired from all the scraping, scrubbing and sanding I've JUST finished doing today. Thanks for the tip.
Good luck, Jeannie. Just be careful with the ammonia if you decide to use it because it, too, has harmful fumes and it might make you faint! It is really strong. I feel for you...I remember when I scraped and scrubbed and tried everything under the sun.
Lisa Barger says:
2 years ago
OK, I'm going to try this. I have a spot in my foyer that I've tried EVERTHING else on.