MMS wrote:
About a week and a half back, we had our basement carpet steam cleaned
by Stanley Steamer, in hopes to remove cat urine from it. Of course,
as fate would have it, the problem was much worse than we expected,
and the smell was horrible. We knew we would have to replace the
carpet. The carpet was indoor/outdoor carpet that had been glued on
back in 2000.

On Friday, I started the laborious task of pulling the carpet back and
up to remove. As I was doing so, I noticed the adhesive was very very
sticky, no doubt a result of the recent steam cleaning. I set a
couple small fans downstairs, plus cranked up the dehumdifier, and
went and checked on it today. It appeared to dry a little, but still
tacky.

Any idea on how long it takes for adhesive to dry like this? I figure
I need to grind the adhesive off and apply a layer of sealant to get
rid of the smell, but can't do anything with the adhesive the way it
is now.

Thanks for any/all help!

With the adhesive the way it is, it may be much easier to get off with
a solvent. Head to your paint store and get a small can of each of the
many solvents they have. One of them is very likey to make the glop
easily removable without completely dissolving it. Xylene comes to
mind as something that attacks rubbery compounds. 3M also makes some
adhesive removers that do a nice job. Read the labels, use
ventilation, etc., etc. You know the drill. Good luck.

Joe