If you just removed carpet and now you need to remove the carpet glue from a concrete floor, here are some tips. The methods below are easy ways for preparing your concrete floors for laminate tile or hardwood. You can try the environmentally friendly products or use the proven but toxic chemical glue strippers. You need to take caution as some chemicals create toxic fumes and are hazardous to you and the environment. Most of the “good for the environment” glue removers are soy based products. These products remove the stubborn carpet glue from the concrete but cost more money and have to be applied several times. Here are some good methods to removing leftover carpet glue from concrete…
Scrape the carpet glue off with a scraper
Purchase a large long handle razor blade scraper. They are the size of a broom but at one end is a large sharp razor blade. Remove the carpet glue by scraping it using some good old elbow grease. These scrapers easily remove huge chunks of the glue.
Use boiling water to soften the glue
Hot water will make the glue come to a softer state. Simply boil some water and pour it carefully over the carpet glue in sections. Let the hot water penetrate for about 2 minutes. The heat will soften the glue and as it is doing so, scrape it off using your handy razor blade scraper.
Scrub the leftover glue with a heavy duty scrubber
If the 2 best methods above worked but you still have residue leftover from the glue, use a heavy duty scrubber brush on a pole to scrub the rest. Mix one gallon of boiling water with 2 cups of ammonia and a few big drops of Dawn liquid detergent in a 5 gallon bucket. Dip the scrubber brush into the mixture and scrub the concrete vigorously. Hose off or mop the area well when finished using this method.
Use a powerful adhesive glue remover
An adhesive remover will chemically softens the glue to make it easier to scrape. Apply the adhesive remover on the concrete floor following the instructions on the box. Use the razor scraper to remove the glue once it is soft.
Just a small area of concrete to remove the glue? Use the Ironing method..
Cover the glue on the concrete with newspapers. Turn on the iron and glide it over the newspapers. This should make the glue soft and easy to scrape up. You may need to do this many times until all of the glue is removed.
Here is a full step by step method to remove carpet glue
When the above methods are just not enough, consider renting a concrete grinder or a demolition hammer with the proper attachments at your local home improvement store. These professional power tools can make the job faster but will cost you more money so weigh out the options when choosing your best glue removal method.
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