Nasty Floor Replacement

[Joe Pelonio]

When we bought this house the people were the original owners. For some reason, even though it was the 70's, they selected a plaid indoor/outdoor type carpet for the familyroom, kitchen, laundry room and pantry. It was foam backed and glued down to the subfloor. Then some time later they
covered that with berber carpet.

Anyway, I have replaced the kitchen and family room floors a couple of years ago. I put off the pantry and laundry room but they have now come to the top of "the list" and will be getting 16" ceramic tiles.

When I pull up that nasty plaid it leaves most of the black foam rubber. For the rest of the floors I have spent literally hundreds of hours scraping, then filling in the scrapes I made in the particle board, and sanding. Is there maybe some kind of sanding medium I can put in the belt sander to take off the foam without damaging the subfloor? Some chemical that will dissolve it?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Joe,

I did the same thing to our kitchen, diningroom and hallway floors. A local flooring store rents a machine. It has an oscillating blade. You stand upright, with handles in your hand. It has rollers and the oscillating blades on the front edge. You just roll it forward and control the height of the blade by the amount of pressure (up or down) you apply to the handle. Worked like a charm and well worth the rental price.

[Joe Pelonio]

Wow, wish I knew that before. I'll look for it, thanks!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Joe,

I just did a search on Carpet Removal...it shows 2 types of floor scrapers made for removing carpet and the foam backing. One is a standup/push model and one is a riding model.

I was able to do the dining room and hallway in a matter of a couple of hours.

Good luck.

[Stephen Tashiro]

I have another nasty floor replacement problem. The kitchen floor of a house built in 1941 has a linoleum floor. (It's genuine old fashioned linoleum, the kind that actually absorbs moisture from a puddle of water unless you keep a heavy coat of wax over it.) The linoleum comes up reasonably well, but underneath it is a dark brown or black layer of something. It might be the adhesive or it might be some sealant. From the thickness of it, I'd say it was the adhesive. I can't find any solvent to strip it off. It is hard enough (perhaps due to its age) to be sanded, but sanding takes a long time. It also makes a very distinctive and strong odor to sand it.

[James Stokes]

Joe, you can rent a buffer with a scrape away head. That removes it real quick.

[Jude Tuliszewski]

Stephen,

Be careful of the old linoleum and adhesive, as the old stuff most likely will contain the "A" word, asbestos . You do not want the dust going all over the place.

[Peter Stahl]

Try something like Goof Off which has Xylene in it. If it works well on a small spot, open the windows and use a respirator. This stuff is flammable. I'd try the buffer with the scraper head like James mentioned first though. You also might try a real tile/carpet store to see what they recommend. Some of these old glues worked too well.