Need help - how to remove carpet glue & bits of carpet pad?

Hey all, just bought my first house, in Pennsylvania!

Knew there was a ton of dog pee staining the floors when I bought it (what a vicious smell!) and planned to paint with Kilz to kill the smell and then put in new pre-finished HW flooring on top of it.

Got the carpet & pad up and a few problems presented themselves, which need to be addressed before I can paint the floors.

For simplicity, I made a link. You can see the pictures and my specific questions about these problems at this link:

http://thegypsylights.com/house/


I would appreciate any feedback on how best to handle this problem. Thanks!

I did a project like this all by myself ... First thing: GET HELP because it is not a quick or easy project. This does not have to be an all or nothing proposal. Some of the flooring might be OK to keep while other sections are probably history. You have to ask about your design motif such as wood halls and carpeted bedrooms ... or the other way around.

That being the case, you could replace missing wood by scavenging from areas you intend to carpet. This will require you to learn how to do hardwood floor repair. (The essential challenge to every DIYer) You would have to cut out some floor boards and re-set them in the damaged areas you want to refinish. The alternative is to locate a shop which has old flooring to match your width of hardwood. Once repaired, plan on hitting the floor with a drum sander, corner sander, belt sander ... a vacuum attachment is MANDATORY and so are ear muffs, goggles and a face mask with a breathing valve! (another tough job for a DIYer but you can do it). Don't kid yourself -- start with 36 grit ...

If you can, remove your base boards to facilitate getting close to the wall with your sanders.

The carpet bits and glue can be softened and scraped off using a spray bottle filled with acetone or lacquer thinner. Make sure the area is extremely well ventilated. Use a pole floor scraper, a mountain of paper towels, and dispose of the residue outside ASAP. Once that goo has hardened, you can sand and refinish.

Here is a newbie explaining his process: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAQ8j29zYa8[/ame]

These nice folks give you a good idea of the process: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPI4_kZ1ebI[/ame]

And the next part is helpful too but the hand sander is a joke ... Go for the edge sander and belt sander (as the video eventually shows): [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm6x4-K4v6w[/ame]

Welcome to Pa homeownership and the Forum.

Took a look at your photos and having gone thru something quite similar last year in our new old Pa home only in our case it was cat pee. It sounds like you have made up your mind to go with all new over the old floors and that is fine if that’s what you want. That was our plan also and changed midway as after starting cleaning up the old floors I discovered they were chestnut and then selectively saved some of the rooms with the best floors and areas like the kitchen I covered with new. I would suggest even if you just want to clean off all the junk sticking to the floors after you get the worst up per Villas suggestions you give them a little sanding to get the rest up and much of the smell with it if you are lucky. I wouldn’t suggest a drum sander for a first timer though, as most rentals have two types the other being a 2’ square vibrating sander. They both do the same job but the square pad sander is slower and a lot less likely to dig in. it also gets into the corners and close to the walls.

I wouldn’t trust the kilz to seal out or in the smells. The best suggestion I was given for that was varnish the old original oil based stuff that needs to be done with all the windows open and takes a day to dry. We had areas where the plaster was stained even and varnished the plaster walls up about 3 feet from the floor. Smells gone.

If you do rent a sander you might be charmed into leaving some of the old floors like we were and if that is the case you would be sanding deeper and a water based poly would do the job I think. Whatever you do make sure the smell is gone before laying a new product over it as you will never get rid of it.

I used peroxide in a spray bottle also to find and clean the spots. When you hit the spots the stuff will foam and neutralize.

Keep us posted as you progress. More advice I’m sure will be needed and many here will help.