Wood Floors
We have lived in this house for a little over one year. I know with this large house that the list for home renovations is running quite long. The one area of this home that drives me insane is our kitchen. For several months we have debated on how to tackle this problem. An entire kitchen renovation tops our want list, but our lack of funds puts it at the bottom. Originally, we set a goal of five years. In five years we will tackle this huge problem, the right way.
Now, what do I do for five years? Honestly, a wise person would say put up with it. Well folks, I am not a wise person. Last week, I felt I couldn't look at the seafoam green kitchen one moment longer. So started the 'Project Spruce Up'. I would spruce up the kitchen with inexpensive paint and curtains. I set a budget. $150. I set up the garage area to paint my cabinets. Got that done. Friday night, my husband and I put two coats of shortbread yellow on the walls. Saturday morning we came downstairs to the new color. We loved it. But there was something that wasn't quite working. We looked at the floor. The problem. A bluish green industrial carpet. With stains. Large stains. I guess it didn't look so bad with the seafoam green cabinets. With the yellow walls and black cabinets. Yick.
There was only one thing to do. Rip it out. We knew there had to be hardwood floors under the carpet. Possibly a layer of linoleum. This was going to be a lot of work, but the alternative was the carpet. In our previous home, we did a kitchen redo. Painted walls, cabinets, even some wallpaper (shh! don't tell anyone!). By the time we got to the floor, we were burned out. We left the 1970's avocado carpet. The carpet with a huge paint stain in the corner. (Ask my husband about the stain...) Everytime someone would see our kitchen they would love it. Until they looked down. Then the moment was ruined. So, we will not leave the floor as it is.
Yesterday we tore the carpet out in the little hallway next to our kitchen. We were right, there was a layer of linoleum underneath. It didn't matter though, because it came up with the carpet. Not that it had much choice since the carpet is glued to every square inch of the room!
I was almost giddy that I didn't have to scrape up linoleum! Until I saw what it had left behind. A layer of felt like substance, glued to the floor. Oy. I got to work with a mixture of vinegar and water. My neighbors had told me that they removed the glue off of their floor with vinegar and water. A little section at a time. After an two hours, I made little progress.
I was ready to hang it up and get some Pergo. At this rate, I would be finished with the kitchen floor in 2010. Later in the evening, I gave it another try. This time, I let the vinegar and water sit for about an hour. The felt came up like a dream. After scraping all of the felt, I washed the floor with vinegar and water again to get all of the glue off. Evidently, older glue, like REALLY old glue was put on thin for linoleum floors. Not like how it is now. I was able to get it all off in 45 minutes.
Today my husband, a friend, and myself tackled the pantry. I wish I could report that this went just as well. I don't know if a different type of linoleum was under the carpet or what, but this felt like crap wasn't coming up. We tried everything. Vinegar and water. Adhesive remover. Paint Thinner. While it did take up some VERY thin layers, we still had that felt stuff on the floor. After four hours, this time I really was going to go get Pergo flooring.
While taking a break from the mess and fumes, I decided to Google our problem. Most sites recommended everything we had tried. There was even a site that recommended we give up. Heh. Every site talked about adhesive. Nothing written with crappy felt like substance left from linoleum. I finally came across a new solution that pertained to our problem. Boiling water. Boil some water, pour over the area, in small amounts, and scrape up. We gave it a try and it worked. An area, a VERY small area, that we had been working on took us 30 minutes to scrape.
I guess I am not ready to throw in the towel yet. I still got the Pergo 800 number on my screen, just in case. I used to think that my kitchen was too small. Now, I am thinking it is not small enough with all of that ugly carpet to be pulled up!
Now, what do I do for five years? Honestly, a wise person would say put up with it. Well folks, I am not a wise person. Last week, I felt I couldn't look at the seafoam green kitchen one moment longer. So started the 'Project Spruce Up'. I would spruce up the kitchen with inexpensive paint and curtains. I set a budget. $150. I set up the garage area to paint my cabinets. Got that done. Friday night, my husband and I put two coats of shortbread yellow on the walls. Saturday morning we came downstairs to the new color. We loved it. But there was something that wasn't quite working. We looked at the floor. The problem. A bluish green industrial carpet. With stains. Large stains. I guess it didn't look so bad with the seafoam green cabinets. With the yellow walls and black cabinets. Yick.
There was only one thing to do. Rip it out. We knew there had to be hardwood floors under the carpet. Possibly a layer of linoleum. This was going to be a lot of work, but the alternative was the carpet. In our previous home, we did a kitchen redo. Painted walls, cabinets, even some wallpaper (shh! don't tell anyone!). By the time we got to the floor, we were burned out. We left the 1970's avocado carpet. The carpet with a huge paint stain in the corner. (Ask my husband about the stain...) Everytime someone would see our kitchen they would love it. Until they looked down. Then the moment was ruined. So, we will not leave the floor as it is.
Yesterday we tore the carpet out in the little hallway next to our kitchen. We were right, there was a layer of linoleum underneath. It didn't matter though, because it came up with the carpet. Not that it had much choice since the carpet is glued to every square inch of the room!
I was almost giddy that I didn't have to scrape up linoleum! Until I saw what it had left behind. A layer of felt like substance, glued to the floor. Oy. I got to work with a mixture of vinegar and water. My neighbors had told me that they removed the glue off of their floor with vinegar and water. A little section at a time. After an two hours, I made little progress.
I was ready to hang it up and get some Pergo. At this rate, I would be finished with the kitchen floor in 2010. Later in the evening, I gave it another try. This time, I let the vinegar and water sit for about an hour. The felt came up like a dream. After scraping all of the felt, I washed the floor with vinegar and water again to get all of the glue off. Evidently, older glue, like REALLY old glue was put on thin for linoleum floors. Not like how it is now. I was able to get it all off in 45 minutes.
Today my husband, a friend, and myself tackled the pantry. I wish I could report that this went just as well. I don't know if a different type of linoleum was under the carpet or what, but this felt like crap wasn't coming up. We tried everything. Vinegar and water. Adhesive remover. Paint Thinner. While it did take up some VERY thin layers, we still had that felt stuff on the floor. After four hours, this time I really was going to go get Pergo flooring.
While taking a break from the mess and fumes, I decided to Google our problem. Most sites recommended everything we had tried. There was even a site that recommended we give up. Heh. Every site talked about adhesive. Nothing written with crappy felt like substance left from linoleum. I finally came across a new solution that pertained to our problem. Boiling water. Boil some water, pour over the area, in small amounts, and scrape up. We gave it a try and it worked. An area, a VERY small area, that we had been working on took us 30 minutes to scrape.
I guess I am not ready to throw in the towel yet. I still got the Pergo 800 number on my screen, just in case. I used to think that my kitchen was too small. Now, I am thinking it is not small enough with all of that ugly carpet to be pulled up!
posted by Unknown at 6:01 PM
11 Comments:
You did not have a Trading Spaces weekend, did you? Sounds like you made some progress. I'm eager to watch the progress on your house.
Good luck on your house. I gave up on trying to get mine remodeled years ago!
Wow! That is amazing Chris!
We had this black tar-like glue under our ugly 70's lineoleum. I tackled it with an iron and paint thinner.
I still have some to remove on the stairs but have no desire to do so. LOL
I can't wait to see your kitchen!
Wow - it's looking great! I wonder if boiling water & vinegar together would help make it go faster.
By the way you need to add your bathroom pictures on here.
To remove adhesives from wood, laminate or vinyl. Use any size towel, lay it over the adhesive!Slowly saturate it with staight amonia.padd it down so there are no bubbles. The smell is a little strong! But nothing compared to Harsh chemical removers! Let stand 15 or so min. Lift the towel and move it to the next spot while you scrape of the glue! If the towel begins to dry out after awhile pour on a small amount of tap water! or more amonia as you go!The less you dilute the amonia the faster it works! I used a spray bottle mixed with tap water & amonia to keep the towel wet while I worked over large areas. Keep the towel good and wet!For larger area! Use a large bath towel! to cover more area!Amonia on a rag can also be used to brighten up old darken stained wood!It really brightens up any wood finish without damaging it. Use some linseed oil to polish it up afterwards. It works great! I recently purchased a 106 yr. old church 7,500 or so sqr ft. 3,500 of it was wood floors covered by old red carpet. I bought itmake my home, art studio & gallery! I had a terrible time trying to remove some really stubborn carpet adhesive that was stuck to the finished wood floors beneath it! I tried all the known removers. With very little luck! A friend told me to try the amonia! And I was amazed at how fast and easy it was!I layed the towel over large area! 10 min. and it came right off! Any thing that was still sticking! I would just lay the glue that I had scraped off on the spot for a few more seconds. And it came right off!Plus the amonia was alot cheaper than the sander and the large cans of chemicals that I had tried! I wish I had known about it before wasted all that time money & effort!I hope that this helps!
Kindest regards!
this post nearly made me cry :) I'd practically given up on getting the mysterious black felt junk off my floors (I'd been using boiling watert, only to get a quarter way through and find a puddle of water in my basement). Your photos look JUST like my kitchen floor!! You have reinspired me to try again :) Half and half vinegar and water? I'll try the wet towel trick too. Thanks!
Kim, you might also want to try a heat gun to get some of the felt off. In our kitchen it seemed certain methods worked better in one area over another area.
We worked in small sections at a time. Two feet by two feet. I would boil a large roaster full of water and dump maybe a quarter bottle vinegar in it. Once at boiling I would pour over the black felt (small area) then throw a towel over the area. I think the combination of water, vinegar, and HEAT gets the stuff up.
Our kitchen floors are still holding up very well. I am still glad we did it.
Good luck!
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