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!

Because it’s Mumsnet

I'm surprised the HA didn't rip it up when the last tenants left. Where I am there used to be beautiful laminate & carpet (house is now 5 years old, we're the 2nd tenants too) but they tore it all up when the house became available. My old landlord (again council) did the same, we paid for lovely carpet that was down a year before we left. Such a waste :(

Have you tried heat gun on the glue op to see if it softens at all. I reckon at first it will be slow but once you've got enough up brute force might rip the rest up.

Hey @Driftingonawave i used to work for a flooring firm and your easiest option here is to try to remove the carpet from the hallway only so front door will fit, then use InCizo profiles in the doorways to manage the level change and fit over the carpet everywhere else. Your floor fitter should be able to trim the interior doors to the right height.

Would use some sort of solvent with plenty of ventilation.

Ah OP I feel for you! We have had this experience. Previous owner had glued carpet down to the kitchen floor!

It took me 2 weeks of using scrapers, Elbow Grease, solvents and chewing gum remover to remove most of it. I haven't dared tackle what's under the units (a job for when we get a new kitchen).

I've since discovered its the same in the bathroom, glued carpet over tiles! Keenly watching for better suggestions than ones I've already tried.

This would be much solution.

Def get someone in to professionally clean the carpet first - it costs between £40 and £100 where I am dependent upon the size of the room.

Shock horror, some people like to decorate to their own tastes if they’re the ones living in it. 😱 😱Why she’s getting a new carpet is nobody’s concern but hers. If it’s a long term rental and she wants a new carpet she can have one. Christ!

When we pulled up the laminate (click together stuff) in our 1940's house we found carpet underneath! Someone had just laid the laminate right over it. We pulled up the carpet only to find the concrete floor underneath was completely uneven so our new flooring turned in to a nightmare of a job. Old houses eh?

Hope you find a solution!

www.concretecamouflage.com/how_to_remove_carpet_glue.cfm

Start at a corner, and it's brute force and ignorance to get the first bit started. Then you've a couple of options:

• use a heat gun to soften the glue, working along the edge of the carpet as you're pulling it up.


• using a solvent to soften the glue, again working along the edge of the carpet as you pull it back.

Do not use the heat gun and solvent together. You'll need a couple of scrapers whichever method you use to help push the carpet up from the floor. Regardless of which you use to get the carpet up, you'll likely need to use the solvent and a lot of elbow grease with scrapers to clean-up the floor afterwards to get it level enough for the underlay before the laminate goes on top.

Your only BU is thinking click-lock laminate is an investment. It might last 6/7 years, but I'd budget to replace it after 5.

www.lovelyetc.com/how-to-remove-glued-down-carpet/

www.hunker.com/13402343/how-to-remove-an-old-glued-down-carpet

few more guides available too, most use the words “tedious” and “elbow grease”… Removal is doable, but a lot of work.

Great idea. Do this.

Why would you be spending money in a rented property ?

Because even people who rent () like their homes to look nice, maybe?

I've never heard of anyone replacing flooring in a rental. Why spend so much money on someone else's property?

If it’s more housing association than landlord they don’t have to follow the same upkeep as private landlords, that’s why the rent is significantly cheaper. Similar to council but usually with better repairs.

I think people relaxed when they heard it’s an HA property, because it’s a bit different. Private landlords can be a nightmare. My friend did her flat up beautifully - with the landlord’s permission. Within 6 months he’d put it up for sale and they had to move out. So while it’s easy to say it’s middle class frothing, to be honest I think it’s mainly the voice of bitter experience.

I've never heard of anyone replacing flooring in a rental. Why spend so much money on someone else's property?

Because it’s their home irrespective of who owns it. And people want to live in nice homes that suit their tastes. Ffs

I've never heard of anyone replacing flooring in a rental. Why spend so much money on someone else's property?

@onlythreenow Because you are living in it and want it nice.

Whenever I've been a tenant I've (within reason) treated it as if I was going to live there for the foreseeable, so I've made it as nice as I could. Especially if OP's situation is kind of like a housing association, that implies they will live there long term. I'm council now and am assuming I'll always live in this flat, barring some miracle maybe.

Don't spend loads of Indy on a rented house!

For anyone who's interested, kettle water seems to be loosening it enough to pull the carpet. Knacked my fingers but progress!! At least I can see the bastarding glue to get that removed next.

I don't understand the why are you spending money on a rental comment's. I'd like to be proud of my home. It's great if youre in a position to own your own home but millions aren't. I don't have a spare 30k but do have 1k to improve our living environment for the next half decade.

It is carpet glue it rips up in moments

*if it's carpet glue

I've just had to deal with this. My family own a flooring business and the question we all asked is WHY tf would anyone do that in a normal domestic setting.

What should have been 20 mins work to roll up the carpet took four people an entire day. We had a sort of metal scraper thing in a pile borrowed from my dad to scrape it off the floor inch by inch. It was awful but we got it done.

Wow that is really stuck and completely see why you want to change the carpet! Excited for you to get new floor 🥳