Removing residue from self adhesive carpet squares
 

My wife did not like the tile floor in our bathroom due to it being cold in the winter so she had me carpet it with self adhesive carpet squares. We are preparing to put our home on the market and the squares need to go. I pulled one up as a test of things to come and there is a very sticky residue. The only good is the ceramic floor tiles are very large so not a lot of grout lines. Anyone been here? I thought before I grab every solvent I have and try I would ask. It is a large area. Was not ready for a pita like this where we are trying to move. To add to the pain the squares are difficult to pull up. Most (all) of the adhesive is on the floor and the carpet squares are not even sticky. Tried lacquer thinner and it only made it stickier. This is what happens when one thinks they will never move. We have only been here 6 years. Last home we were at 27 years. One can imagine the stuff we had to move.:bigcry:

Edit: I had some Eastwood PRE left from a paint job I did 25 years ago and it worked. Now I need to see if I can still buy the same product.

Try mineral spirit, if you can still get it where you are.

I just went through that on a small apartment above a garage I'm remodeling. The sub floor was not strong enough, it was amateur built. All the square adhesive tiles were turned up on the edges. I'm almost certain because walking pressure with the soft subfloor made the centers depress and worked the edges up.

It's a weird apartment, the kitchen is on two levels (hilly lot), I took the tiles out of the lower part and the adhesive remaining on the floor was so intense it would pull my shoes off if I walked on it. I tried using cornstarch, hoping the sheet vinyl adhesive would still work, the cornstarch did not work well, then I used citrus paint remover and one of those paint scrapers with a handle and a four sided piece you can turn around on the business end. I scraped up a bunch of junk and then I realized I needed to put three-quarter plywood down. The sub for really needed beefing up. So all that time trying to scrape up the residue had been wasted.

The upper section had a better subfloor, but the residue about as bad as below. The worst part would've been positioning the large sheet vinyl, one piece, I didn't want the bleeping edges turned up again. What I do is positioni the vinyl, get it in the right place and then roll up half of it, put the adhesive down roll it back, and roll the other half and do likewise. Sticky residue would've ruined my piece of vinyl before I got it in place. I would not have been able to move it. So I put down 5/16 ply on the upper. Worked great.

I found (mostly by mistake) that petroleum distillates liquifies it so I can remove it with rags or whatever. I tried some WD40 on a whim and it worked. I contains petroleum distillates. I tried some charcoal lighter fluid and it worked also but better (also petroleum distillates). So I guess the Mineral Spirits was the trick. Much less expensive than PRE.

Sorry about all that unedited text in the post above. I have got to remember, voice to text is nifty, but it is way less than perfect.

No problem-it was an entertaining read. Tomorrow is the big day. A stinky, gooey job.

There is a chance that putting down 5/16 plywood would be easier and yield better results. Will cost a few pennies, however.

It's a really nice tile floor so it needs to stay. Did not do the job yet-something else came up.

flammables indoors?

I plan on well ventilating and putting the rags in a metal ash can. Flammable paint products are used in homes frequently but one must exercise caution and good practices. My dentist burned down his house by leaving deck stain rags in a pile while re staining his deck. Been delayed by being ill but the realtor is coming soon so I need to get it done.