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Troweled on liquid nails removal

nmantas

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Previous owner used troweled on liquid nails to adhere wooden parquet tiles. Does anyone have and idea of how to grind/scrape/plane it off without destroying the hardwood underneath? This is construction adhesive and not normal flooring glue and it will laugh at most removal methods.
 

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DGersic

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MAXStrip claims that their Adhesive and Glue remover will soften it so that it can be scraped off.

Big floor sander, aggressive grit, and lots of time seem more likely to “work” but I can’t see you coming out of this with a nice finished floor.
 

The Cobbler

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but I can’t see you coming out of this with a nice finished floor.
you have a mess. it's probably futile to try & save the hardwood.
I would get some 24 & 36 sanding discs on an angle grinder to "test" if that works. then if it's successful rent a sander & heavy paper. but I suspect the paper will fill & gum up real fast unless the glue is very old & dry . even then, heat generated will likely make it gummy again.
 

Dig Doug

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Depending on what your going to install new.
carpet & pad 1st would be easy !

grind / sand it down / off

or
skim it over w/ a leveler

I would try this 1st as I own a grinder and vacuum for concrete grinding, Im thinking that one room would take an hour to hour and a half to remove the glue and then the plywood would need some patching. Keep the grinder moving back and fourth other wise it will dig in and remove to much material

or rent a big walk behind sander for hard wood floors, You’d need some hand work to get close the base boards

IMG_3660.jpeg
 

Shiftless

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As said earlier, the heat generated by a sander will soften that glue and gum up the sandpaper VERY quickly. I’m afraid that your only realistic path toward ending up with a good looking hardwood floor is to either demo the whole mess and start over or to install another hardwood floor on top of the existing. That of course would cause trouble at the transitions. You might end up with project creep where you have no choice but to lay a new floor throughout most of your house.
 

Nobody-named-Olli

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Question is what ”heat” is going to do to it. Any sanding will heat that residue up to some extent, if that makes it gooey you’re in for quite some fun - not recommended at all!

My recommendation will be the Festool Renofix with dia-th cup specifically designed for removal of adhesive (or literally any material) that doesn’t like heat/warmth during removal. -> RG 130 ECI-Set DIA TH

You will need a proper dust extractor when running this.

And then, the floor needs to be brought back to life with sanding, coating & sealing.

The other option - which could be a hit or miss - is Metabo’s LF 850 S. Not really recommended for adhesive residue, but I have seen what that machine can do to old staircases painted in thick layers - so personally I’d give it a shot if available. Will also require proper dust extractor. Will most likely leave better surface to start sanding from.

Both recommendations come with reliable depth-stops/ depth-setting capabilities - which basic dust shrouds for diamond cups on angle grinders will not have. Be aware of that if you’re serious about salvaging that floor.

At the end of the day it’s a numbers game. Worth it? I don’t know.

Kind regards,
Olli
 
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PWC Repair

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ANY sanding is going to soften the glue and gum up the paper. I would try a hand planer set for a VERY SKIM cut and test an area. Cured construction adhesive is pretty hard so I think the blades will cut through without making it gummy.
 

CGT80

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Blast it......with dry ice.

I'm serious, it is a thing, but I'm not sure if it would work on that glue or how expensive it is.
 
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duneslider

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Big flooring drum sanders, not the square thing at home depot, but a real flooring drum sander sander will knock it all off no problem. If memory serves me right we used 12-24 grit belts for that kind of stuff, hit it with them until its almost off then start sanding the floor. I have heard of guys using buffers with hardplates and low grits to remove it but I haven't done that. Shouldn't be a big deal at all for any floor finishing company.
 

WisJim

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Thirty years ago we pulled up the old flooring in our old farmhouse and tried to remove the glue. I tried scrapers, planes, solvent, and a large floor sander. The floor sander sort of worked but belts were totally gummed up before they cleared a couple of square feet. We went to a saw mill/lumber dealer and got good red oak t&g flooring for $2 a SF and redid the kitchen dining room and living room of the farmhouse. New flooring over the old throughout. Wife would lay out flooring during the day, so all I had to do when I got home from work was nail a dozen courses in place. Back then I didn't mind the work.
 
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nmantas

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One contractor (having already seen the same pictures) was horrified when he saw it in-person and got cold feet on the job. Another one has done similiar situations before and agrees there is no way you can drum sand it off, not only will the paper immediately get gummed up but the bearings in the machine wouldn't survive. His move is to use a diamond grinding buffer attachment on the glue then sand out all the scratches. I previously saw those pads at home depot rental and was almost going to give it a whirl but at this point I think I'm passing the torch to the pros and their experience/equipment. The quote was on the high end but that is to be expected as this glue may double/triple the floor prep time (also have several damaged boards that need to be replaced). $2,900 for the finished job for 350ft^2 (estimated area I came up with). We do have one more quote lined up.
 

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nmantas

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actually that price is not a bad price .
It was lower than my expectation, I do know that in my area almost all houses were built in the 1930-1950's and about every single one has oak floors which means that there are a lot of refinishers which brings the rate down but this is not a typical job. I thought our only options were carpet (which we don't want) or tear out and replace hardwood so we have no issues with the price. Still want to see what the other contractor says for piece of mind.
 

cgrutt

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I grinded a concrete floor with a diamond pad similar to what was posted above. Was pulling up mastic from vct tiles. Wasn't an easy job and didn't get 100% of the mastic off concrete. Have no idea how that will work on hardwood flooring but suspect it will severely damage flooring. Will likely need to be sanded afterwards with drum sander to get swirls out. Good luck.
 

duneslider

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Curious, but have you tried hitting it with one of these floor scrapers? Razor Scraper I use these for everything stuck to the floor and it works pretty good and should take a lot of that up without an extreme amount of work. I use it to take thinset off concrete, drywall mud, glue, vct glue, etc. Usually makes pretty quick work of it. Pretty sure they have them at lowes and HD as well so not hard to get. It has to be these kind with the replacable razor blades and not the ones that just have a piece of thin steel.
 

67King

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Friendsville, TN (Knoxville area)
I would try different solvents in a few different spots. Put down the solvent, cover with plastic for a while so they have time to work, and not evaporate. I've turned a few Porsches into race cars, and the glue they used on 944 carpets is the hardest stuff to get up I have ever come across. The dry ice blast worked, and putting cookie sheets with charcoal under teh car to heat it up worked. SOlvent wise, the stuff that did the best job of anything was xylene. Obviously you have to worry about that being so thin that it may get down into the wood and discolor it, so again, spot clean. See if any of the solvents work well, and again, cover it in sheeting to keep them from evaporating, and you might get it soft enough to scrape up.

Good luck, looks like a mess, but honestly, your quote doesn't seem too bad. Good thing is is a relatively small area.
 

PCustoms

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Curious, but have you tried hitting it with one of these floor scrapers? Razor Scraper I use these for everything stuck to the floor and it works pretty good and should take a lot of that up without an extreme amount of work. I use it to take thinset off concrete, drywall mud, glue, vct glue, etc. Usually makes pretty quick work of it. Pretty sure they have them at lowes and HD as well so not hard to get. It has to be these kind with the replacable razor blades and not the ones that just have a piece of thin steel.

I scraped carpet glue off smooth concrete using one of those, I can't imagine trying to get thick liquid nails off.

As for the solvents suggested.innthenjext post, think about the volume of (likely flammable) material that would require.

They make carbide scraper discs for buffers/Sanders, the hard part is going to be a "light touch" on the wood.
 
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