Dissolve Foam Rubber Backing From Hardwood Floors

Removing rubber carpet back from cement floor.

Dissolve foam rubber backing from hardwood floors.

Rubber backed mats can dull your floor s shine and even cause some discoloration. The padding may have been glued or stapled to the floor. A third option is spray lubricant which is a petroleum distillate like mineral spirits and can loosen the adhesion of the latex to the finish. Rug pads are great for keeping area rugs from sliding around on hardwood floors but the wrong one can leave marks and hurt your floor.

If you can find a long handled scraper the kind they use to remove tile it will save on your back. In that case the best method for removal will depend on why the pad stuck to the floor in the first place. Flooring experts informed our team of several common causes. Never ever use a rubber or latex backed rug on your hardwood flooring.

How to remove dried latex backing from a floor. To protect your hardwood floor use a combination felt and rubber pad to keep your area rugs from sliding. I still wouldn t ever use a latex backed rug again after this experience because i d be afraid some of the latex would get through the rug protector underneath. 09 16 2007 by leona labine.

If you do and i wouldn t ever use one of those rug protector thingies underneath the rug. The tape had been along the floor moldings i painted years ago. It gets a bit more complicated if you plan to keep the wood floor uncovered and refinish it. Rent a floor sander either a drum sander floor stripper or square buff sander and take off the foam varnish and thin layer of the wood.

Then add the cost of refinishing. Mineral spirits is a good solvent with which to start experimenting it can soften synthetic adhesives and it s safe for most floor finishes. If mineral spirits doesn t work try denatured alcohol which is good for removing dried latex paint. I recently borrowed a little portable steamer from a friend to remove masking tape on wood floors.

Rugs with latex backings can stick to your flooring leaving behind a big mess when the rug is removed. In many cases it may be more appropriate to remove the backing by sanding with a floor sander or a floor buffer and a 36 grit sanding screen. Usually it is best to remove floor edge molding to get all the way to the walls but if the molding is expensive or hard to remove it is not unreasonable to do a best effort with the edge sander above.