How do I remove glued down carpet..?

Question

Our home came with glued down carpeting in the main bath. I just hate it and need it gone!! Any way to remove it beside scraping inch by inch ???

The Garden Frog with C Renee · Answer

I am not sure how this will work but I have a couple ideas~
1)do you own a steamer? try and steam the carpet and see if the glue loosens up.
2)take a towel and your iron on steam or hot setting and 'iron' the carpet to see if the glue loosens up. Be careful not to touch the iron on carpet or you could melt it and have a big mess. Otherwise pulling the carpet up is the only way I know. Good luck

Jeanette S · Answer

You can probably rent a straight edge tool at the big box store to scrape this up. We took up tile in the kitchen and there was the grout and the bonding stuff left on the floor. Hubby wanted to use grinder to get it up and I said 'Oh, no you don't...that sanding dust is not going in my vents to be spread all over the house!' We got straight edge putty knives about 2' wide and small hammers and went to work. Do not try to use large tools because you will wear yourself out using them. Make it easy work. We had it finished in about 2 hours...total of 4 man-hours! And I did not have sanding dust all over the house. (Sit flat on your butt and make yourself comfortable...no other way to do it!) We used the same method with needle nose pliers to get staples out of a floor. Just get 'er done!

Jennifer G · Answer

It's a nasty job - no real short cuts unfortunately :( I found a Five-in-One tool works great. It's stronger than a standard scraper and has a beveled edge. Work on small areas at a time, scrape carefully so you don't stub your fingers, knuckles or break nails. I always wear a dust mask (or respirator) when working in the bathroom due to my sensitivity to mold spores. 
Be prepared for some grossness - You never know what might be lurking under that carpet! I had one bathroom where they put the toilet ON TOP of the carpeting, so I had to remove the toilet to get the carpet up, then get a new wax ring before re-installing (YUK!)Good Luck! It will go faster than you think and be TOTALLY worth it! What are you going to put down instead of the carpet?

Lauren · Answer

Use a heat gun...it melts the glue. Then it can be scraped off after the carpet comes up. You can lift the carpet as you heat it. I had 2 rooms that had indoor -outdoor carpet glued to hardwood floors...they are beautiful now...honey colored.

Seattle Surfaces · Answer

You can rent a power scraper if there is a lot of square footage and the glue is really stubborn. The are also some non-toxic soy based products that sometimes help soften the glue if you want to avoid the rental, but the soy products are cheap either. Soy-gel and Beanie-Do are two that come to mind.

Carolyn Hoxton · Answer

The heat gun works great, I used it to remove some awful paint that was gummy on some woodwork, great suggestion, you don't care if it burns the carpet, right? Be careful, they do get HOT !!!

Nancy B · Answer

I scraped mine inch by inch with a scraping tool that I bought from HD. It wasn't too bad.

Cindy tustin · Answer

My husband works housing maintenance at a university. I have listened to his horror stories for years. There is really no easy way to remove. Scrapers seem to work the best but be ready for a very intense workout.

Sally-Charles Evans · Answer

We used a scraper that had a long handle like a rake! No crawling on knees!

Laura's Little House Tips · Answer

I have done many floors and always scrap but there is a tool with a long handle like Sally said that allows you to stand to do it. If I do scape on the floor using a smaller scraper I just put on some music and use it as therapy lol. Good luck

How do I remove glued down carpet..?

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How do I remove glued down carpet..?

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