Carpet has been glued to floor boards.

Suzanne W
by Suzanne W
We just moved into a 40-year-old house, it obviously needs updating. This ugly carpet is in the kitchen! Worst of all, the carpet has been glued directly to the floor boards (no padding.) Any suggestions on what kind of flooring I can put in that won't be expensive, but still nice?
Kitchen Carpet
  17 answers
  • Carol C Carol C on Jun 21, 2012
    All the laminates are great,easy and inexpensive...plus a DIY job.they even have the laminate to look like brick now.
  • Suzanne W Suzanne W on Jun 21, 2012
    But with laminate, don't you need to also put an under layment?
  • 3po3 3po3 on Jun 21, 2012
    Yes, you need an underlayment for laminate. I think it is kind of risky for a kitchen, though. If water gets under the top layer and into the laminate boards, they are ruined and you have to start over. You can find inexpensive tile or if that isn't in your budget, vinyl tile. But for either of those, you will need to scrape up all that carpet. Sorry.
  • you will need to remove the rug of course first. They make a power scraper for the reciprocating saw that is sold at Lowe's This is a two person job one pulling on the carpet while one works the saw into the glue. Will make quick work of this project. http://www.lowes.com/pd_355525-31302-108_0__?productId=3387846&cm_mmc=SCE_gps-_-gps-_-gps-_-Spyder%204-in%20Reciprocating%20Saw%20Scraper%20Blade%20Attachment&CAWELAID=1023520865 Once the carpet is up, you then can decide what to do next. If the floor is in pretty good shape, less some glue, a laminate floor will work, but it does need a underlayment to even out the bumps and make it more quite to walk upon. Check in your area for Lumber Liquidators. They are having a sale the next few weeks on laminates. With some as low as $1.99 a square foot. They have a great selection as well.
  • Jeanette S Jeanette S on Jun 22, 2012
    We removed similar carpet and big patches of foam backing stuck to the floor. We had to shovel it up and then put a wire brush wheel on the drill and knock the rest of it off...we had about 600 sq. feet of this mess! In our kitchen, we put down laminate about 2 years ago and I will never have anything else! LOVE IT! With any kitchen floor, you have to be careful of water because even ceramic tile can have cracks in the grout. The underlay for this flooring is only about $1a foot...probably less . I have real oak hardwood in my living& dining rooms and laminate everywhere else in the downstairs...even master bedroom and bath....LOVE IT! There are so many different colors and patterns that are affordable now...I love them all!
  • Carol C Carol C on Jun 22, 2012
    Steve,they make Laminate now just for "wet' areas.they are designed just for kitchens and bath areas...some actually have the inderlayment on it already.Our daughter just put in her bath and it has a 30 year warrantee.Go to Home Depot or any good flooring company..we will be doing our kitchen in the next year.It's espiecally great for older homes as they are never level or square,,and these floors are 'floating" floors so you don't have to worry about that.
  • Carol C Carol C on Jun 22, 2012
    Oh,we've removed that kind of carpet before and linoleum also,make sure you wear masks and block of the doorways to the rest of the house,as you don't know about what kind of glue is under there.Lots of work but well worth it!!!
  • 3po3 3po3 on Jun 22, 2012
    Interesting. Thanks for the update, Carol. I haven't seen that. I will have to look into it.
  • KMS Woodworks KMS Woodworks on Jun 23, 2012
    In a kitchen the best and most durable option would be tile...you can find tile at most home centers for about $1 sq ft...if your not to picky...If you want higher end stuff you can pay upwards of 8 to 20 a sq. Get the carpet out and install some cement backer board then the tile...it will last darn near forever.
  • Ginny F Ginny F on Jun 23, 2012
    We have several rental houses that had berber carpet or very thin commercial type carpet in bad shape stainwise, all were glued down. We were advised against doing this, but used the caret as underlayment and laid down laminate right over the carpet. Some of them were done over 3 years ago and we have had no problems whatsoever. YOu could not do thisif the carpet is plush, thick or uneven though.
  • Tracie M Tracie M on Jun 23, 2012
    Depending on the type a glue...Goo Gone (Goo Gone is not flammable), wide large metal spackle knife and a heat gun. Start in a corner with Goo Gone and spackle knife for lifting. Once started, and is working, add a small amount of Goo Gone to exposed glue connected to floor and carpet, place knife edge to floor at a slight angle and push forward/up against carpet, then use heat gun (if it has settings, use the lowest) point towards floor and glue to prevent melting carpet. Will take two people, one to pull carpet back, one to used knife and heat gun.
  • Jan C Jan C on Jun 23, 2012
    Check out Lumber Liquidators on line for pricing of laminate. They beat out our Home Depot/Lowes by almost half in price! We put laminate all the way thru the downstairs because of budget and are so happy with it! I have 2 - 5x7 area rugs in our kitchen/eating area in case we have any major spills, but the laminate is withstanding quite a lot. We have a 75 lb. dog who runs all over and it doesn't scratch at all, which is what I was worried about. For pricing tho, Lumber Liquidators was fantastic.
    • Linda Spellman Linda Spellman on Mar 16, 2015
      We replaced all the rooms in our house except those that were tiled with laminate from Lumber Liquidators. We didn't choose the cheep kind but the better type with the already attached backing etc. first of all it was very difficult to install, but worse then that I'm sick to my stomach now because they are saying that all the laminate that they sell that was manufactured in China that was supposed to be safe is NOT it has CANCER causing eliminates to it. They had a big investigation on the news about it. I'd definitely advise anyone to check it out for yourselves before you buy from them!
  • Carol C Carol C on Jun 25, 2012
    If you have a Habitat for Humanity store you can get great deal there also,builders donate over stock.Prices are fabulous.
  • Fran T Fran T on Jul 01, 2012
    We have 40 year old laminate glued to concrete..how do we get it up, short of renting expensive equipment? Tried the scraper, tried wetting it..still stuck. Help!!
  • Fran, You are out of luck, unless you want to build really big muscles. A power scraper is well worth the cost when you see how many blisters you will end up with trying to do it manually. The machine is a bit heavy but the cost of rental should not be much more then $60 a day. Well worth the money when you see just how hard it is to do. I also sent you a note also. Bob
  • Connie S Connie S on Sep 02, 2014
    With the new laminate flooring, you can use sealer on each seam and get a pretty nice floor for a kitchen. This gives you a little more time to get spills up and keeps it from soaking in the board seams. I recommend doing this anywhere laminate planks are put down, for those things you never saw happen that can make you have to pull up a whole floor.
  • T T on Sep 24, 2015
    IF YOU have not got the carpet up.. just pour buckets of water and let set a few minutes. I will come up in a breeze, easier if you cut carpet in small sizes for easy carry and disposal