carpetconcreteflooring
My sunroom has berber carpet glued to a concrete floor. It isn't coming off and I don't want to waste the time & money to get it ripped up. I want hard flooring out there.
Can I put a concrete layer on top of the carpet and start over?
Are there easier cheaper hard flooring options?
Thanks!
If it's not visible, just got for a manufactured board, e.g. plywood, OSB, etc. For 3cm, you may be looking at two pieces stacked on top of each other. If it's on concrete, install a moisture barrier first. To secure the boards, I'd avoid the temptation to use a Ramset and permanently drive the names into the cement, since the next time the flooring is redone, you can take the opportunity to do it right and pull everything up and go wall to wall. Instead, secure it with a few cut nails. Again, this all assumes that none of this is visible.
(source: jmnails.com)
The paper backing can be cleaned off with a solvent paint stripper and then wash the old glue off with trisodium phosphate and a scrub brush. Then wash several times with water to remove the residue of both operations. Tile thin set in most cases may not adhere to old glue, especially if you have to use unmodified thin set because you are planning on using an uncoupling membrane like DITRA.
Best Answer
No, that's not a very good idea for a few reasons. One is that if water is spilled and leaks through the cracks in the hardwood floor then the carpet will soak it up and do lots of bad stuff do the hardwood floor above it.
And I'm not a concrete expert but I think concrete on top of carpet would not be a good idea either. And that would be way more work and money than just ripping up the old carpet.
There's plenty of ways to remove glued-down carpet. You can use boiling hot water and a big scraper. Or you can go to a big-box home improvement store and rent a power floor scraper. I know that Menard's has them.