Removing outdoor carpet and adhesive from front porch


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Old 09-02-14, 06:22 AM
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Removing outdoor carpet and adhesive from front porch

My wife wants me to take up the carpeting on the front porch. Its nasty and old (been there since we bought the house a few months ago). What can I use to get the adhesive up so the concrete looks good?
 
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Old 09-02-14, 09:21 AM
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Personally I'd glue down some new carpeting. You can try scraping to remove the old glue but at best that will be a lot of work and I've never seen it work to the point of the concrete looking good. To do that you'd probably need to grind the surface.
 
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Old 09-02-14, 11:14 AM
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I've scraped and used solvent to get concrete in good enough shape to paint but like PD, I doubt you'd be able to clean it up good enough where it would look nice uncovered.
 
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Old 09-04-14, 02:22 AM
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What would you recommend?
 
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Old 09-04-14, 04:07 AM
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I'd start out with mineral spirits, that usually dissolves the adhesive enough to get the concrete in paintable condition. MEK is a lot stronger but also isn't as 'fun' to work with. You'll also want to use a scraper.
 
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Old 09-04-14, 04:53 AM
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Just to add to why it is difficult to clean a porous surface. I used to clean ink off of office equipment and one problem we ran into was once we applied a solvent that would dissolve the ink, if we didn't get it all off in one attempt, the ink ended up moving deeper into the plastic.

Cleaning the adhesive off of a concrete surface with a solvent could result in the same problem. A paint job or maybe some tile sounds good to me.

Bud
 
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Old 09-04-14, 02:07 PM
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We dont want to paint it nor tile it though. We just want the concrete back as much as possible.

Home Depot sold me some adhesive remover
 
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Old 09-04-14, 03:03 PM
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Wish you luck but I'm not sure you'll be able to get it back to clean concrete without grinding the surface.
 
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Old 09-09-14, 04:10 AM
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So what kinda of tool do I need to rent or buy? Or is it better to hire a professional and if so, who?
 
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Old 09-09-14, 05:09 AM
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I think it's call a scarifier but I don't know for sure and haven't ever used one. Go to your local tool rental place and discuss it with them, that should give you an idea if it's something you want to tackle yourself or not.
 
 

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