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!

On Jul 22, 9:44 pm, 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!

I don't have an answer for your adhesive question (other than it may
remain tacky forever) but I do have a few questions about the use of
Stanley Steamer.

Did they know about the cat urine? Did they say that steam cleaning
would get rid of the odor? If they did, and it didn't, did they still
charge you?

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

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

MMS writes:

Thanks for any/all help!

Here is the help you need: you are doing this all wrong. Strip the adhesive
residue off altogether with methylene chloride paint stripper.

You must remove odorous contaminants. Leaving them in place with a
covering of "sealant" is futile. Getting them wet and waiting to dry is
also futile, as you have seen. The foul smell comes from gaseous products
of biological decomposition, and that gas will work its way out of
*anything* you put on top of it, short of a hermetic seal.

I know you just wanna believe it can be done some easier way, because you
were foolish enough to be suckered by the carpet-cleaning crooks, but it
ain't so.

On Jul 23, 3:11 am, Abe wrote:
MMS writes:

Thanks for any/all help!

Here is the help you need: you are doing this all wrong. Strip the adhesive
residue off altogether with methylene chloride paint stripper.

You must remove odorous contaminants. Leaving them in place with a
covering of "sealant" is futile. Getting them wet and waiting to dry is
also futile, as you have seen. The foul smell comes from gaseous products
of biological decomposition, and that gas will work its way out of
*anything* you put on top of it, short of a hermetic seal.

I know you just wanna believe it can be done some easier way, because you
were foolish enough to be suckered by the carpet-cleaning crooks, but it
ain't so.

Agreed about removing the odor altogther. I bought a house that had
urine soaked into the particle board underlayment in a couple of
rooms. The only way to really solve the problem was to rip up the
underlayment and put down fresh ACX plywood. It's not very hard to do.
In your case, you might also consider OSB as the underlayment
material.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

-- In your case, you might also consider OSB as the underlayment
material.

The OP said it was basement carpet. I'm thinking there is no
underlayment, nor will there be in the future.