Someone has superglued our entire carpet to the concrete floor.

[Driftingonawave]

Shamelessly posting for traffic but I'm very stressed and concerned.

We've saved up for ages to replace the carpet in out home. It's the original carpet that was laid when the house was built 8 years ago. We've lived here 5.

It's not our home, it's owned by a private landlord that used to be part of the council.

Basically, I've been and ordered the laminate and came back home. Thought I'll just lift a bit of the carpet to see what's under, more curiosity than anything. I've now discovered the entire carpet is glued to the concrete floor.

There are no carpet tracks, no underlay just the carpet and the glue. I've emailed the landlord to request they remove it but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Has anyone removed this before? It took me 45 mins to remove about 20cm x 10cm. The carpet downstairs is 33m squared

Please tell me there's a magic tool to fix this!

I don't want to be paying for the removal, I've emailed a clear outline of the reasons I think it is their responsibility.

However some of the requests I've made in the past, thinking they'd be a landlords responsibility they've shirked off.

I agree that it is probably carpet glue not superglue. This is more commonly used when laying contract carpet (in offices for example). Not sure how you get the carpet up though

How else would you like carpet to be fixed to concrete? How were you planning on fixing any underlay for your laminate down?

can’t use gripper rods since nails don’t generally work well in concrete. It’s unlikely any solvent will work through the carpet itself, it’s going to be brute strength. Once the carpet is up, you can then apply solvents to remove the glue, but as you’re laying laminate I would just (using glue!) lay underlay and then put the laminate on top of that.

good luck!

It's on concrete. Glue seems to have worked well.
I think you haven't thought this through.

If it's sound, no rips or stinky bits you may be glad of the extra sound absorbed and the insulation it gives to the laminate.
If you need it up though don't buy a heat gun a hairdryer will soften the glue and make the residue scrapeable.

Christ the ignorant comments on MN towards renters never ceases to amaze me!

Looks like carpet adhesive OP. You should be able to steam it and scrape it off but it's a messy job.

What a nightmare, the HA needs to sort this out.

I thought they ensure floors are bare before they let new tenants move in?

We're replacing the flooring because it's disgusting. The landlord has refused to replace as an upgrade.
We will realistically be here another 6/7 years so it's an investment that I'm willing to make. It's open plan and we've ordered the click together type so I'm hoping when we do move out because downstairs is open plan we will be able to take quite a lot of it with us to re use in a smaller bedroom for example.
The landlord confirmed, infuriatingly enough, that if we move out in 6/7 years they would then replace the carpet if we don't change the flooring between now and then, so won't deduct anything from our bond for leaving the concrete.

We had this in our house 20 years ago. The thin cord type carpet was glued to the floor. DH used a wallpaper stripper for the steam but had to use a chisel and/or scraper to get it up, it took absolutely ages. If you can, i would reglue and use it as underlay or put laminate over if height allows. Good luck!

Who would do this?!!

Some do.
Some charge EXTRA for stuff like this.

Steam/boiling water seems to be what google recommends.

Why is everyone commenting on the fact that op is replacing flooring in a rental house and not actual offering any advice on their issue!??

This is literally MN in a nutshell!

im not sure why everyone is checking op has done her due diligence on this matter . It’s really not what she’s asked! My mum fitted a new kitchen and bathroom in her rented council flat. I would also want to make my home look nice and be practical .
something like this should do it op.

I would ring the people that you've ordered the laminate from and explain the situation as they will have seen this before. See what they suggest as they will know what is best for the laminate.

I think I'll try the iron once the kids are in bed, see if I can get some steam through to it. Thank you for the suggestions.

The fitter we've gone with said it would need to come up, I thought it'd be an hours job once the furniture was out the way. It's so bad it's almost funny 🙈

If you use an iron do it through a damp tea towel. a lot of carpets are nylon and direct iron heat will melt it and bugger up your irons surface.
You could try solvents like paint thinner/acetone, but ventilate the room well the fumes are no joke.

I did it with vinyl floorcovering. I scored it across with a Stanley knife in strips about the same as the length of an iron.
Then, using an iron on 'hot' over a newspaper I went over it a bit at a time, pulling up the vinyl and rolling it up.
Still had some little bits of glue left here and there - weeps. - on oak floorboards.
But it worked!

Lol, people love to bumlick a landlord on MM.

OP, that looks terrible! Worth outsourcing the job to a professional?

Maybe the fitter has advice? Brute strength and an electric sander for residue?

This seems the easiest solution. Clean the carpet first.

Try boiling water. Maybe cut a square with a stanley knife and pour a kettle over the square, leave for a bit and see if it loosens the glue enough to peel away. I think it depends on the type of glue, but this worked for me when I pulled up some old lino which had been glued every couple of feet, so I was left with patches of lino above the glued areas).

I wouldnt sand the residue - be awful messy. I think there are DIY products which will remove the glue as pp's have suggested. Be careful of the fumes tho

I have never fitted laminate blocks so don't know before people laugh but could it just be laid on top of the carpet.