Removing glue from a concrete floor can be hard work! Here’s 6 ways to remove adhesive on concrete floors to help you pick the best for you.
How to Remove Adhesive On Concrete Floor
Oh guys, I just finished removing the toughest, gummiest, thickest glue I’ve ever seen on a concrete floor. And, it was rough, really rough!
In fact, I tried a bunch of different ways to figure out the fastest way to remove adhesive on concrete floors. But different types and thicknesses of adhesive will be easier to remove.
So, you might be able to remove hardwood floor glue on concrete floors in your room with just one of these tools. You can also use these tools to remove carpet adhesive and vinyl floor adhesive.
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If you need it, I have another post with the steps to Remove Glued Wood Flooring. Be sure to watch the video on that post to see my favorite way to pull up glued down hardwood and engineered flooring.
After you’ve removed your glued down floors, it’s time to remove the flooring adhesive that’s left behind. Here’s 6 DIY ways to remove glue on concrete.
Table of contents
Tools I Used To Remove Glue from Concrete
- Oscillating Tool with a Scraping Attachment
- Flooring Chisel with Hand Guard
- Flooring Scraper
- Hammer
- Adhesive Stripper
There are a lot of ways to remove glue on concrete floors. Most of them use tools to help you get the work done.
Pick the way you want to remove flooring adhesive based on how big your space is, how much physical effort you can do, how much you can spend, time available, and how much adhesive is left on your floors.
OK, here’s how to remove glue from engineered hardwood flooring, hardwood flooring, vinyl floor glue, and carpet adhesive.
Flooring Chisel
A flooring chisel with a hand guard is a great tool for scraping light amounts or small areas of adhesive off concrete floors.
The end is sharp enough that you can push the chisel across the concrete and light strips of adhesive will easily scrape off.
And, a flooring chisel is perfect for using with a hammer to pop up broken scraps of hardwood flooring too.
Flooring Scraper
You can also find a stand up version of a flooring scraper at most hardware stores. These flooring scrapers are great because you can use them without bending over.
It helps save your back if your concrete glue is coming up easily enough for a scraper alone.
If you need to use the hammer with the chisel or if your adhesive is too strong to work with a stand up chisel, you’ll have to move on to one of the other options.
Oscillating Tool
If you have hard to remove adhesive or bigger spots of adhesive to remove from concrete floors, you can try scraping it off with an oscillating tool using a scraper attachment.
It looks easy, but it’s still hard work. You have to apply pressure to get the scraper beneath the glue. And the vibration from the oscillating tool can get annoying after a while.
For me, it was easier to use the oscillating tool to remove adhesive where the adhesive was actually on the concrete slab.
If the adhesive was on the poured floor leveler (lighter grey areas) then that adhesive was really fighting me and much harder to scrape up.
Flooring Adhesive Stripper
If you have a lot of adhesive to remove from concrete floors, or multiple rooms, you might want to use flooring adhesive stripper. Pour it on nice and thick and spread it around.
The stripper I used has very low odor and is easy to use inside a home your still living it. I got absolutely no headache from this chemical.
I do recommend pouring the stripper on in reachable sections, so that you don’t have to stand on gummy, tacky areas after you’ve scraped that spot.
AND remember, using liquid adhesive stripper doesn’t mean that it will be suddenly super easy to remove the adhesive, just EASIER.
You’ll still have to put in effort while scraping. And, you will need a second layer of stripper in some spots.
Multi-Purpose Floor Scraper
The next option for removing adhesive on concrete that I want to tell you about is with a plug-in, big multi-purpose floor scraper that you can rent from your local tool rental company.
Some of these things are about 4′ high and around 130 pounds. Some of them are smaller and closer to 35 pounds, like this one.
So, plan ahead for how you will lift and transport it if your tool rental place only has the big guys!
They also can be pricey too, depending on how long you need it. Home Depot rents one for about $65 for 4 hours. And, you probably have to buy a new scraper attachment when you rent it.
BUT, those big, electric floor scrapers can save your back and time, when you have multiple rooms to scrape.
Dry Ice
So, I haven’t tried this option to remove adhesive from concrete floors, BUT I have had a few people recommend using dry ice on flooring adhesive before scraping it off.
With the super gummy adhesive I had on my concrete floors, dry ice probably would have worked great. It could have hardened that adhesive, making it easier to chip the glue off concrete floors.
That’s it, guys! Think about the pros and cons of all of those options when you decide which way you’ll pick to scrape adhesive off of concrete floors.
Check out the video below to see the three ways to remove glue from concrete floors I went with and the two I didn’t.
Removing Adhesive from Concrete – 5 Ways Video
In this video, you can see me removing glue from concrete using most of the ways mentioned above.
After Remodeling This Room
And, here’s a look at this room after I finished the full remodel on it. You can see the full Before and After Family Room Makeover in another post.
Or, check out 16 Great Ways to Repurpose an Unused Formal Living Room for ways to use an unused space.
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Looking for more of my Home Remodeling Videos? Check out this DIY Home Improvement playlist on YouTube.
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Feeling inspired? Now that you’ve read these tips for How to Remove Adhesive From Concrete, you can do it too. Good luck with your project!