Removing glued down crapet underlay

[Kamak]

I just had a look under the carpet in my place and the underlay has been glued to the cement slab. Any ideas on how I can remove this?

 

[lizzie]

having had to remove this hideous product a couple of times in reno's - all i can say is "good luck".

a sharp spade is about the best product i've come up with. pouring all sorts of glue soakers and white spirits made no difference ...

i hope someone else has a better suggestions

 

[Joe D]

Kamak

If the carpet lifts off but leaves a black rubberlike underlay stuck to the cement, then you need to scrape it off.

If is a painful (tedious and messy) job and best left to the carpet installers who have special tools and the knack to do it quickly.

You can buy a scraper (a bit like a long handled shovel with a flat blade about 300mm wide from Bunnings.) This gets the bulk off. You can also use a long handled scraper (like a razor blade refill) from same supplier.

I spent a half a day trying to do this on a reno a couple of years ago, but then found out the installer would prepare all floors and remove old carpets for an extra $100-$150. This was on a 3x2 with dining and lounge.

Best money ever spent!

 

[Kamak]

Hmmmm I best get floor prep included in the quote to get the bamboo layed.

 

[skater]

Hmmmm I best get floor prep included in the quote to get the bamboo layed.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[BoatBoy]

Toluene gets almost anything off, including you.

Dangerous stuff if not taking the correct precautions (like letting somone else use it)


Dave

 

[jrc]

Used petrol to remove the underlay. Worked quite well

 

[ethereal]

We removed carpet underlay and glue from a timber floor by scraping and then sanding with the floor sander and a makita orbital sander. Had we realised the floor sander was so effective in removing the underlay we would not have bothered with so much scraping at first. I would probably give it a go on concrete with a really heavy duty sander and a very rough grit disk/paper.

 

[yadreamin]

having had to remove this hideous product a couple of times in reno's - all i can say is "good luck".

a sharp spade is about the best product i've come up with. pouring all sorts of glue soakers and white spirits made no difference ...

i hope someone else has a better suggestions

yep this is the way to go. unfortunatley.
cheers
yadreamin

 

[lizzie]

We removed carpet underlay and glue from a timber floor by scraping and then sanding with the floor sander and a makita orbital sander. Had we realised the floor sander was so effective in removing the underlay we would not have bothered with so much scraping at first. I would probably give it a go on concrete with a really heavy duty sander and a very rough grit disk/paper.

unless it's a rubber based underlay - we tried the same thing and all that happened is that the rubber melted and clogged up the sandpaper even quicker.

i like the petrol option - pour on petrol, light match, run very fast ... that should get rid of any underlay problem.

 

[bailz66]

just thank yourself lucky its not hourse hair underlay... that was a mission

 

[geoffw]

I just had a look under the carpet in my place and the underlay has been glued to the cement slab. Any ideas on how I can remove this?

I had the same problem a few years back.

I hired equipment from Kennards which stripped the glued carpet underlay, as well as lifting cork tyiles.

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showpost.php?p=44319&postcount=19

Not forgetting a picture of the equipment. Me with a professional stripper (in the same thread).

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showpost.php?p=49172&postcount=41

Forget solvents and hard work with the back of a spade. That machine did a fantastic job.

But compare costs with what a professional would do.

 

[Kamak]

Cool Geoff I'll call Kennards in the morning. Will be getting a quote from a guy in the morning. Im a bit tight so if I can do it myself I will. $113 for the day. Wonder if it will take care of the remnants of tiles after they have been jack hammered up.