I posted a bit earlier about removing carpet glue from a concrete slab that I am going to tile. I now know I have to remove the glue however at first I thought the glue was old and crystalized but now I see it is tacky. What should I use to remove the glue? Any solvents out there that will do a job? The area is 5 1/2 feet by 21 feet. I am not too concerned about damaging the surface of the concrete because like I said in 2 weeks i'll be tiling. Any advice would be greatly apreciated. I did several searches but could find none that was about glue on concrete. Eveything was about glue on hardwood. Thank you in advance.

 

If the glue is even somewhat soft, scraping the bulk of it off will be way ahead of using any solvent on it.

 

NO SOLVENT!!!!

If it can remove a bonding agent it can prevent another bonding agent from bonding.

 

Yeah I figured as much . Any tips on what kind of tools or whatever else would work well for scraping off the glue. Keep in mind it is a concrete slab that will be tiled over shortly. I don't care about scratches, just wiping out the glue. Thanks again for the advice and any more you can offer this tired frustrated soul .

 

what we do is take floor patch and kinda throw it all over the floor to kill the tackiness and to help when scraping so it does'nt re-stick so to speak or become more of a mess when scraping get you a 4" or6" scraper and alot of blades

 

Floorman, dirt or sand will do the same thing, and is more cost effective!

It acts as a media for the adhesive to attach too, especially the sand.

 

used that also but the patch usually is more readily available

 

Me too, I don't have much sand on my truck either

 

Ok, here's the deal; I just got back in from the breezway with the glue, I tried scraping, and I feel as if I got next to nowhere. I have an abrasive pad that I hooked onto a drill, the glue basicaly laughed at me. It does come off after awhile but after a LOT of scraping. Why is using a solvent on the glue on concrete such a bad idea? Will the solvent soak into the concrete and make the adhesive for the tile not stick? The mortar that we are using is called Reflex. I was told that this is one of the best mortars and that it will be fine to leave a little bit of the glue residue on the concrete. We however do not have a little. I saw a glue remover at Home Depot especially made for carpet adhesive. If I were to use that, let it soak into the glue than scrape, if it gets all of the glue off could I just wash the concrete with water and bleech to get the adhesive remover off and then mortar? I am not trying to find a shortcut. I refinish hardwood floors and know the importance of not cutting corners but I would think in todays day and age there has to be something out there that would be safe to remove the glue than tile over. Any more help would be greatly apreciated.

 

the problem with the solvents is they do have adverse reactions with the mortar ,try a test section in small area and then mix a little mortar and see if it will stick to the concrete, let it sit over night and come back the next day to see what it did

 

Well we tiled the breezway after hours of scraping the glue. The thinset that we used is called reflex and it does specify on the packaging that it can be aplied over an area that has some old glue residue on concrete as long as the residue is old and dried on. That was certainly the case with my breezway. We scraped everything that appeared gooped up and scraped the whole floor evenly. Some glue would not come off with the sharpest razor scrapers so I knew that would be fine. We tiled two days ago and the tile is holding like iron so I would highly recommend reflex for anyone with this situation. Thank you again everbody with your help.