I’m sure you’re excited to see that this is only part one of removing carpet glue from concrete.  That means there will at least be a part two and you’ll have more ugly photos and stories of slow and tedious DIY endeavors to delight you.  As I shared in the initial post about the basement, home renovation isn’t always pretty.  You can read that post HERE.  In brief, the concrete basement floors are covered in a coating of old carpet glue and remnants of padding still clinging to said glue.  Not only is it unsightly, but it’s impossible to clean properly, which drives me nuts.

I’ve been nervous about this basement floor since we moved in, though.  My fear was asbestos was lurking either in the glue or the pad and disturbing it would be a health hazard.  If it did contain asbestos, we would either have to have it removed professionally or cover/encapsulate it.  I have wanted to address the floors for two years, but this fear made me freeze.  I finally decided to put myself out of my misery about the floor and test a sample of the glue and pad for asbestos.  I used THIS kit and easily took the sample myself and mailed it off to the lab.  I received the results the following week.

Negative.  No asbestos in the sample.  This news made me irrationally happy and I was ready to start scraping at the glue almost that very minute.  I did feel a little silly that after two years of fretting, I simply needed to spend five minutes and $33 to get the answer.  I should’ve done this test long ago.

With my fear alleviated, I could start working on the glue, testing out what tools and techniques were most efficient and effective.  I’ve done a lot of reading and research on removing carpet glue from concrete and, in the end, decided to try four techniques – boiling water, steam, a few suggested cleaners, and chemical glue removers.

So, let’s walk through the tests for removing carpet glue from concrete.   It ended up being harder on my back to try to scrape it sanding. For all of the tests, I used these tools –

• Two different hand scrapers – THIS one and THIS one  (I tested out a floor scraper with a long pole so I could use it while standing, but I found that I couldn’t quite get under the glue at the right angle.)
• extra razor blades
• five-gallon bucket & lid for waste
• dust pan with rubber edge
• squeegee
• padded, water-resistant work gloves (THESE are great)
• thick kneeling pad

.  Test # 1 – Since I had it on hand, I tested GooGone Pro-Power first.  I always have GooGone in my cleaning products and it works great on adhesives and sticker residue, but it didn’t It didn’t do very much on old carpet adhesive.  It did help with softening the glue so I could scrape it up, but it wasn’t going to be practical to use over the entire basement floor.

Test #2 – Someone suggested using OxiClean, so I tried that as well.  I mixed some in a large spray bottle, sprayed it onto an area and let it sit for a while.  It did soften the glue and I was able to scrape it up, but it was slow going.

Test #3 – I tried using steam next since I have a Wagner steamer (THIS ONE) for removing wallpaper and a Neat steamer (THIS ONE) I use for cleaning.  The Wagner steamer fitted with the wallpaper attachment worked better than the Neat Steamer simply because it focused the steam on a larger area.  It worked well, but I wasn’t sure if it was the most efficient way, so I wanted to keep testing.

Test #4 –  A friend who recently went through the joys of removing carpet glue from concrete shared that boiling water was the most effective method for her situation.  I put on an electric kettle on and gave that a try.  It was fast, in that I could work in larger sections, but it was messier having to sop up all of the gluey water.

Test #5 – While I didn’t really want to try heavy-duty carpet adhesive removers, they are formulated for removing carpet glue from concrete and other materials, so I felt like it would be foolish to not give it a try.  After watching several videos and reading reviews, I ordered Sentinel 626.  The reviewers claim it’s low/no odor and effective.  I poured it over a small area and let it sit for about an hour before I started to scrape.  The reviewers were right that it doesn’t have an odor and it was effective at loosening the glue, but I had to use a lot of it to really saturate a small area, so it was going to be expensive to do the entire basement with this product.

After all of the testing, I decided to focus on boiling water and steaming.  It was free, chemical-free, and loosened the glue just as well as Sentinel 626 without the added expense.  I also don’t need to get the floor done in a day or two.  I can work one small section at a time over several weeks, which works well for the steaming/boiling water method.

When Jeff and I are working together, we use the boiling water to work on larger areas at a time and hit stubborn spots with a steamer.  When I work on my own, I just use the steamer and work in small sections.  The steamer is perhaps the most effective with the least amount of mess.

Once the glue is removed from a section, I’ll use a squeegee to collect the water and glue into a dustpan (with a rubber edge) and put it in the five-gallon bucket.  When the bucket is full, I’ll fill it with kitty litter, put a lid on it, and dispose of it at the local dump.

I’m learning that removing carpet glue from concrete is a slow and tedious job, but it isn’t hard.  I’ve been able to make some good progress by working on it a half-hour here or an hour there.  I’m starting to get into a good rhythm and have figured out an effective technique, so I’ll share a video tutorial on it in part two.

As a satisfying before & after, here is how the floor looks with the glue and padding…

…and how it looks clean…

You can still see where the glue was applied, but I believe that’s just where the concrete has been discolored because it’s completely smooth.  Once the floor is completely done, which is going to take a few weeks at my current pace, I’ll prime and paint the walls and then the floors.

Every section I get done feels like a victory and there is something rewarding about putting in a little bit of time and effort each day to give this basement a much-needed update.