That floor prep that took 8 hours instead of 2

I had a living room job last Tuesday where the old carpet glue was caked on like concrete. I figured a quick scrape and done, but I ended up spending 8 hours with a 4-inch scraper and a heat gun to get it flat. Any tips for dealing with stubborn glue layers without burning up a whole day?

3 comments

3 Comments

walker.andrew13d ago

Man, that sounds brutal. I swear it feels like every simple job in life hides some secret nightmare layer that takes forever to deal with. It’s like the universe has this rule where the time you think something will take is always off by a factor of four. For the glue thing, I’ve had some luck with using a cheap steam cleaner first to soften it up before scraping. That way the heat gun isn’t the only thing doing all the work. Sometimes you gotta let the moisture do some of the heavy lifting, even if it means a little more drying time.

victorross13d ago

Ha, you're ABSOLUTELY right about that secret nightmare layer. I swear every project has this one step that you think will take 10 minutes but turns into a whole weekend of scraping, cursing, and questioning your life choices. The steam cleaner idea is GENIUS though, I never thought of that. I'm usually the guy who just grabs the heat gun and hopes for the best, which is probably why I've burned three pairs of pants and melted a trash can at this point. Maybe I need to start taking the slow and wet approach instead of just attacking everything with fire. My wife would be a lot happier if I stopped filling the house with that burnt glue smell every weekend, you know?

hayden_martin2911d ago

One of the flooring guys I follow on Youtube swears by using a spray bottle with warm water and fabric softener to loosen old glue overnight, @victorross, then you can scrape it way easier with a big floor scraper.