# Forum Home Renovation Flooring  Removing Carpet Glue/Polishing Floorboards

## Sunny1

Hello All, 
We have removed the carpet from out living room, only to discover it had been glued to the floorboards, and most of the carpet underlay is still stuck to the floor (we have scraped as much off as possible). We have tried removing the carpet glue, but most of these attempts have just become stinky and messy.
My question is about the best way of getting the floorboards polished. We have been told three different things:
1) it will be really easy to sand and polish
2) the carpet glue will 'melt' into the floorboards from the sanding and totally ruin what we have
3) it will be easier to just flip the floorboards over and start again 
Is anyone able to shed any light on the best way to have our floorboards looking great. 
Cheers,
Sanne

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## Dusty

Quick answer, the glue that you have described sands off pretty easily so just go ahead with the sanding and polishing. :Smilie:

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## LegacyGT

get as much off as you can then go at it with a the big floor sander. the glue will clog the sandpaper to some extent . but then again they aint that expensive. 
i spent 5 days trying to get the glue of with hot water and towel trick and lots of swearing and only covered 1/4 of the room. then i said stuff it and hit it with the sander. much more efficient.

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## Sunny1

Thanks for the above answers....that was pretty much what I wanted to hear. 
Cheers,
Sanne

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## MICKYG

Sanne, Just completed 40 Sq Meters of the same thing. After sanding the lot I discovered thin white lines of glue where the tongue and groove meet up. We spent a couple of days cleaning these grooves out by hand with a sharpened blade of suitable width. During this process we discovered the whitish glue was almost soluble with boiling water which meant that if we had  cleaned the whole floor with boiling water and let dry the job would have been ten times easier. I had a good result eventually. I hope your glue is water soluble which will save you a lot of uneccessary work. 
Regards Mike :2thumbsup:  :2thumbsup:  :2thumbsup:  :2thumbsup:

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## AKA BB

Dusty nice link and display of work congrats on the site well done! 
Do not leave out any paper grits as each one serves an individual and progressive purpose.    *Floor Sanding DIY Steps*  *Tips For Sanding Timber Floors*

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## Reiner

I havew done the same thing years ago and used paintstripper to remove the glue. It worked very well. After the stripper you can wash the floor with water and it comes up pretty good and rady to sand. 
Reiner.

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