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 know if this is the right glue (if it's all over it probably is) but a lot of carpet firms lay carpet using an adhesive now. Mine's like it and it's not unusual.

@Driftingonawave it's not super glue it's contact adhesive, you should be able to soften it with a hot air gun and scrape or rub it off, but Google it first.

No advice op, but glad to see the attack launched on you by the NM middle class massive has been diverted. I presume they're off to explain how they worked hrs for their money and have been frugal now they've been chased off this thread!

The kitchen tiles on the wall in one house were stuck on with a thick rubbery adhesive , possibly carpet glue. Nightmare. In the end we tiled over them………

www.concretecamouflage.com/how_to_remove_carpet_glue.cfm

Good luck 🤞

It would have made the fitting much cheaper than paying for gripper rods and the time for the fitter to fix them, then go around the entire room, so it's very common with budget carpets.

It's the cheapest, laziest (and nastiest) way to fit carpet. No carpet fitter worth their trade does this - you use underlay and gripper as a rule.

It's also a bitch to remove. You'll need some sort of professional machine that heats the glue up enough to remove it, I'd ring a local tool hire place.

You need an oscillating multi-tool, the flat attachment to get between the concrete and the carpet. It’ll still be slow much much easier

My experience (as a LL) is that LLs are loathed on MN second only to people who have affairs.

Your mistake, OP (big mistake, huge!) was mentioning that the house is rented. It wasn’t remotely relevant to your DIY-related question about how to remove a glued-down carpet. And now the practical advice is lost in a sea of comments about landlords, tenancies and rental terms and conditions.

That aside, it's a bugger of a job. One thing that's always a good idea with carpets is slicing them up into manageable sections with a Stanley knife while they're still on the floor, though. They you are at least dealing (potentially) with smaller pieces.

Yes I've come across carpet glued to concrete many times. Just lift the carpet and scrape off the loose/fluffy/high bits of leftover glued-on carpet then put your laminate flooring on. Job done.

We had a carpet that was stuck down with a strong adhesive. This was so we didn't have to remove the oak floor underneath, we just wanted the lounge carpeting while our kids were crawling and small to make it a bit softer and cosier. A flooring company then removed it with some kind of solvent which took some cleaning off but didn't damage the floor. It is maybe worth asking a flooring company to take a look and quote for removal?

oh yes, use it as underlay, otoh it might smell

My house is a 1950s one and had original carpets when we moved in 5 years ago and all the carpets on the ground floor were glued down like this. It was the done thing with cement floors apparently.

Ours came up so easily due to being so old and the glue basically not being glue anymore.

I don't have any advice I'm afraid other than maybe pry up the edge and spray the glue remover along the stuck bits. Will take a while as you'll need to let it get to work.

Rip it up. I don’t have any concrete floors but I have had carpet glued by the fitters in odd places such as window seat areas and places where there’s no need for underlay, thinking of the cupboard under the stairs, the bottom of fitted wardrobes and cupboards in the eves.

I would then lay that thin film underlay under the laminate which will stick to it.

don’t expect the laminate to be fit to take in six years though!

I'd use glue remover along the edge that you can see where you've already pulled a bit up. It's take forever but I can't think of anything else. We've had some right nightmares at our house. The things people do is just insane.

Lay your laminate over the carpet. It needs an underlay anyway and the carpet will do just fine.

Although once you've got a good bit off you'll be able to grab it and pull harder

This exactly.. op when we rented we replaced carpets twice, it's your home and you want it to be nice.

Maybe ring a carpet shop they may know something to help loosen the glue

Are you detached? If not are the houses next door also HA?

there can be a huge increase in noise when you go from carpet to laminate, especially it seems in open plan houses. I’ve read about cases where there have been ongoing complaints after laminate has been installed!

www.partnersislington.net/media/1203/2006-08-24-advice-for-installing-wood-or-laminate-flooring-2.pdf

I helped a friend get this glue off her floors… it was a nightmare job, with lots of elbow grease needed plus fumes from the melting glue.
I think you will have to use brute force to rip the carpet out, (although a pp mentioned a special machine ? ) . Then you need to soften and scrape all the glue off .

How dare a renter not want to live with a shitty stained ancient carpet that a stingy landlord can't be bothered to replace. OP we have also replaced didgusting carpet with laid down clicky laminate boards in our rental (with permission). The carpet was mouldy underneath, it was grim. Who do I think I am though, not wanting to live with inherited mouldy carpets.

I would put the laying of the laminate flooring until you have the floor back to concrete. It will be really hard work and may take a while - best to put the new floor on hold until you have the carpet out. This guy has given his advice - but I have never tried it. But cutting into strips and then soaking with boiling water for an hour then scraping does seem like it might work. Good luck!!

I would just rip the carpet up and put the laminate underlay over the glue as it is tbh.