how to removing carpet glue from wood...
 

Hi one and all,

I am currently renovating our open stairs in the cottage, in several places
namely around the bottom starting step carpet has been stuck with a VERY
strong glue, now having eventually removed the carpet, what is the best way
to remove the glue from the wood, it is still fairly "tacky" I'm guessing
that sanding will require the worlds supply of sandpaper, any other
suggestions? I'd like to return the wood to a finish that I can varnish.

Thanks in advance

James

"James" wrote in message
...
Hi one and all,

I am currently renovating our open stairs in the cottage, in several
places namely around the bottom starting step carpet has been stuck with a
VERY strong glue, now having eventually removed the carpet, what is the
best way to remove the glue from the wood, it is still fairly "tacky" I'm
guessing that sanding will require the worlds supply of sandpaper, any
other suggestions? I'd like to return the wood to a finish that I can
varnish.

Thanks in advance

James

You could try a steamer with a nozzle on it. That'll soften it to the point
where you can sape it off.

Andy.

In article ,
says...
Hi one and all,

I am currently renovating our open stairs in the cottage, in several places
namely around the bottom starting step carpet has been stuck with a VERY
strong glue, now having eventually removed the carpet, what is the best way
to remove the glue from the wood, it is still fairly "tacky" I'm guessing
that sanding will require the worlds supply of sandpaper, any other
suggestions? I'd like to return the wood to a finish that I can varnish.

Depending on the type of glue try a hot air stripper with a flat
scraper, some sort of solvent (white spirit, meths, acetone, lighter
fuel) or Nitromors.

Hi one and all,

I am currently renovating our open stairs in the cottage, in several places
namely around the bottom starting step carpet has been stuck with a VERY
strong glue, now having eventually removed the carpet, what is the best way
to remove the glue from the wood, it is still fairly "tacky" I'm guessing
that sanding will require the worlds supply of sandpaper, any other
suggestions? I'd like to return the wood to a finish that I can varnish.

Thanks in advance

James

Whatever you do - don't sand if it's tacky. You'll just clog the sander (been there, done that). White spirit or petrol (or some other solvent) may work - soak rags in the solvent, cover a relatively small area and put some plastic sheeting on top to avoid evaporation. Leave for a few hours, then scrape.

In article ,
says...
snip
Whatever you do - don't sand if it's tacky. You'll just clog the sander
(been there, done that). White spirit or petrol (or some other solvent)
may work - soak rags in the solvent, cover a relatively small area and
put some plastic sheeting on top to avoid evaporation. Leave for a few
hours, then scrape.

I suppose we might have expected a DIY Banter contributor to advocate
leaving petrol-soaked rags lying around the house ...

[color=blue]I suppose we might have expected a DIY Banter contributor to advocate leaving petrol-soaked rags lying around the house ...[//color]

And I suppose we may expect someone like you to play with matches around them... no matter where you post from.

Aren't you the one that suggested using acetone? And you assume that is safer?

Rob Morley wrote:
In article ,
says...
snip

Whatever you do - don't sand if it's tacky. You'll just clog the sander
(been there, done that). White spirit or petrol (or some other solvent)
may work - soak rags in the solvent, cover a relatively small area and
put some plastic sheeting on top to avoid evaporation. Leave for a few
hours, then scrape.


I suppose we might have expected a DIY Banter contributor to advocate
leaving petrol-soaked rags lying around the house ...

A Nitromors type stripper is the only way afaik. Flooring adhesive
usually has a pretty volatile solvent so won't respond to anything less.
Similar to Gripfil I think.

In article ,
says...[color=blue]

I suppose we might have expected a DIY Banter contributor to
advocate leaving petrol-soaked rags lying around the house ...[//color]

Why does that appear to be HTML? Where's the attribution, and indent to
indicate quoting?

And I suppose we may expect someone like you to play with matches
around them... no matter where you post from.

Do you really think that petrol vapour will only ignite if you purposely
apply a flame to it?

Aren't you the one that suggested using acetone? And you assume that is
safer?

I didn't say anything about leaving rags soaked in volatile and
potentially explosive solvents lying around anywhere.

Taking your points in turn:

1. No, I do not think petrol will only ignite if you apply a naked flame to it, although you do need some form of energy applied to begin ignition (you choose - a laser beam, microwaves, electrical spark, ...). If you choose to be sarcastic, expect sarcasm in return. FYI, acetone has a lower ignition energy, and a lower vapour tension at 20C than isooctane. It also has a lower vapour density, facilitating mixing with air to form explosive mixtures.

2. Did I say anything about lying around? I said to leave the solvent in contract with the adhesive for a time, not to leave it unsupervised. Having just stripped three rooms (~70m2 / 770ft2) in my house in a very similar situation to that described by the OP, I can assure you that with some adhesives you either need huge quantities of solvents - which is a risk in its own right, unless you hire air filtering equipment, or you need to leave them to soak for a long(ish) time. If you have a different, viable and safer suggestion for leaving (dangerous) solvents in contact with the adhesive for a sufficient time for the solvent to work, please let's hear it. I'd be glad to use it on the next floor!

3. The HTML appeared in the post because I edited it after posting and there seems to be a bug in the DYIbanter editing engine that interprets HTML tags as text in edited posts; if you don't like people posting using web-based engines, go read somewhere else that is only accessible to people using "proper" newsreaders, or ask DIYbanter to close their own site.

I don't think I can indent using the DIYbanter site - FYI, your quotes do not appear as indented either, there. I try reasonably hard to follow threading and posting etiquette, but as the posting engine on DIYbanter produces what I find "unwieldy" quotes (see this post as an example), I try to snip as much as possible and quote other posters in different colours within the message; given the mess that others make by not snipping, having incorrectly tagged/indented replies etc., I am finding this objection fairly picky. Do you have a suggestion for a good newsreader?

A Nitromors type stripper is the only way afaik. Flooring adhesive
usually has a pretty volatile solvent so won't respond to anything less.
Similar to Gripfil I think.


The most common type of flooring adhesive is a water based rubber/resin
emulsion and is cream/yellow in colour. If that is what you have then no
solvent I know of will remove it. You're *stuck* with scraping I'm afraid.
Once the water has evaporated and the adhesive has cured it cannot be
re-emulsified and if applied correctly the bond is extremely strong. There
has even been more than one occasion where we have pulled up carpets and
strips of the floor have come up with it!

Grumble

In article ,
says...
snip

If you choose to be sarcastic, expect sarcasm in return.

Where was the sarcasm?

snip
given the mess that others make
by not snipping, having incorrectly tagged/indented replies etc., I am
finding this objection fairly picky.

Lots of people seem to make a mess of it - does that mean we should
abandon the accepted standards, which have evolved to make the process
work better?

Do you have a suggestion for a good newsreader?

I use Gravity and news.individual.net - does Banter not let you see
that? If you insist on using a web-based interface why not use Google
Groups? It's not perfect, but it has to be better than Banter.

Your original post "I suppose we might have expected a DIY Banter contributor to advocate leaving petrol-soaked rags lying around the house ..." sounded fairly sarcastic to me.

Thanks for the suggestion; will look for Gravity at the weekend - and no, banter does not let me see anything about where your (or anybody else's) messages come from - AFAIK; there may be some settings/profile bit that I have missed. You just show up as usenet poster.

Grumble wrote:
A Nitromors type stripper is the only way afaik. Flooring adhesive
usually has a pretty volatile solvent so won't respond to anything less.
Similar to Gripfil I think.



The most common type of flooring adhesive is a water based rubber/resin
emulsion and is cream/yellow in colour. If that is what you have then no
solvent I know of will remove it. You're *stuck* with scraping I'm afraid.
Once the water has evaporated and the adhesive has cured it cannot be
re-emulsified and if applied correctly the bond is extremely strong. There
has even been more than one occasion where we have pulled up carpets and
strips of the floor have come up with it!

Grumble



I've never come across anything that methylene chloride strippers won't
shift

In article ,
says...

Rob Morley Wrote:

Where was the sarcasm?

Your original post "I suppose we might have expected a DIY Banter
contributor to advocate leaving petrol-soaked rags lying around the
house ..." sounded fairly sarcastic to me.

It would have been sarcasm if I'd said "Hey, that's a great idea ..."

Thanks for the suggestion; will look for Gravity at the weekend - and
no, banter does not let me see anything about where your (or anybody
else's) messages come from - AFAIK; there may be some settings/profile
bit that I have missed. You just show up as usenet poster.

Gravity is here

http://lightning.prohosting.com/~tba...ty/start1.html