[jcv]

My husband & I just bought our first house (built in 1975) and we are planning to take out all of the carpet & put in laminate (mainly for allergy purposes.)

So...first day in the house, we took up the carpet only to find....another carpet! Underneath the second carpet is a black foam-like pad glued to the subfloor. This is true of the entire house. Not exactly what we were hoping for.

So my question is, what is the best way to get this pad off and get the floor ready to put in the laminate? We've started on it with putty scrapers, and if that is the best way to do it, we'll just grit our teeth & keep at it. But if anyone knows any tricks, or any quicker, better ways to do it, your input would be *greatly* appreciated.

Also, is this stuff dangerous to breathe in?

Ah, the joys of home ownership! Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Floorwizard]

Try a stand up floor scraper.
It will help you stop from breaking your back.

Possibly some asbestos in the adhesive? tough to tell.

 

[jcv]

Can you test for asbestos at all?
Is it ok to disturb the stuff if there *is* asbestos in it?
Thanks!

 

[Don Benham]

Is this what you have?

I find these under carpet all the time. The people didn't want to deal with it so they installed new carpet on top of it. Big mess to clean up. I believe it was put down with regular carpet glue but you absolutely need to wear masks. Open windows, anything to keep the air clean while you work.
You can also mist the floor with a little water if the dust gets too bad.

I usually just use a six inch putty knife to get it up. A stand up scraper will work well on concrete. If it's on wood, and it always seems to be on wood, reverse the scraper razor blade so it won't dig into the substrate.

Just start in a corner and work your way out. It's tedious and you'll get a blister on the palm of your hand.

From the age of this carpet and what I've seen of the old floor underneeth, before you put in your new floor do any nessaccary additional prep before recovering.

Is it ok to disturb the stuff if there *is* asbestos in it?

NO!!!! Never disturb asbestos! I think it may be a federal offence to do so if you're not licensed. Well, maybe not but it should be. But I'm pretty sure just regular carpet glue would've been used for that stuff.

A Google search of asbestos testing and asbestos removal can give you alot of info. You can't really test for it yourself. It takes a special microscope to identify.

Good luck,
Don

 

[jcv]

Yep, that's the stuff, all right.
Thanks for the advice. That's really helpful. (Daunting, but helpful!)
Hopefully it's just regular carpet glue, but I think I'll look into the asbestos possibility just in case.

 

[jcv]

And it *is* a wood subfloor, as you guessed. So it's good to know about reversing the blade.

 

[jcv]

Has anyone heard of a product called Peel Away 5?
Any luck with it?

 

[Don Benham]

I forgot to mention, I've seen all kinds of conditions this pad is iin. From still spongy and coming up in strips, or dried and brittle where you have to sweep every bit of it up.

If you use a chemical remover remember you need to clean it up real good, not just let it dry. Sometimes thats not wortht he extra work.

Here are the specs for that if you don't have them.

Don

 

[Teetorbilt]

Peel Away makes a variety of products and the ones that I am aware of work quite well, not perfect, but well. I am not familiar with their 5 product. I would assume that it would work as well as the rest of their line.

 

[ccoffer]

I like a buffer and hardplate for that stuff. Its fast and easy.

 

[jcv]

Well, for any others who run into the same problem, we worked on the floor this weekend (after having it tested for asbestos), and the best method we found was to scrape the area first with a tall ice cutter, and then follow up by going over the room with a putty knife to get anything that the ice cutter missed. It's a relatively thick, spongy pad, and with four people (2 on ice cutter duty, 2 with putty knives), we were able to finish about 80% of the house (4 rooms and a hallway) in about 7 hours. *Very* tedious and exhausting, but at least we're making progress. Thanks so much for all of your help!

And ccoffer: Does the buffer get clogged up at all? That might be a good thing to do a final once-over with? Is sanding at all something we should consider?

 

[747]

I have a den in the house that use to be a single car garage. Floor is cement. Just had new carpet put in by lowes three monthes ago. When I took up old carpet pad was glued with some kind of adhesive. I just took a pole scrapper or what ever they are called scraped the pad up which was a messy job then got shop vac out and vacumn floor good. Five minutes after I got down Lowes was pulling up with carpet. They used some kind of spray adhesive when they put down new carpet pad. I don't understand why they would use a adhesive on pad if it wasn't a cement floor. I guess just being cheap not wanting to do job correctly.

 

[Don Benham]

I have a den in the house that use to be a single car garage. Floor is cement. Just had new carpet put in by lowes three monthes ago. When I took up old carpet pad was glued with some kind of adhesive. I just took a pole scrapper or what ever they are called scraped the pad up which was a messy job then got shop vac out and vacumn floor good. Five minutes after I got down Lowes was pulling up with carpet. They used some kind of spray adhesive when they put down new carpet pad. I don't understand why they would use a adhesive on pad if it wasn't a cement floor. I guess just being cheap not wanting to do job correctly.

The type of carpet the JCV dealt with had an applied padding. It had to be glued down for a proper install. It's just a PIA to remove. When using a seperate pad these days on wood staples are the ticket. On concrete adhesive and tape.

Don