How do I remove carpet adhered with multi purpose glue such as Roberts 3000 series multi purpose adhesive?
Roger: Typically the types of carpet adhered with this multi purpose adhesive are Action Bac®, Jute back or Enhancer® backed goods. Since Enhancer backed carpet is typically the most difficult to remove lets discuss that application.
For well adhered coverings, carpet that can only be hand pulled in 2" or narrower strips, I would start by using a 13" self dicing blade like the InnovaPro™ 81-0059 with the Terminator®. This blade will allow for the fastest removal times because it cuts the carpet into strips as it scrapes it off the floor. Using this blade, I would make each successive pass 15" apart creating a striped pattern on the floor. After your initial passes with the self-dicing blade, you can remove the remaining carpet with a larger flat blade like the InnovaPro™ 81-0063.
This method will effectively remove between 50% and 60% of the adhesive in the first pass, so it will be necessary to re-scrape the entire floor for an "install ready" floor.
The main advantage of this method is that you don’t have to get on your knees and pre-cut the carpet saving yourself expensive man hours and sore knees.
If your carpet is not well adhered to the floor or is unevenly adhered you can sometimes have frustrations with snagging and bunching of the carpet when using a self-dicing blade. In this situation, it will be necessary to pre-cut the carpet. The easiest way to precut carpet is using a stand up cutter such as the Innovatech™ 70-0007 Carpet Dicer. Pre-cutting the carpet in 12" 18" or 26" sections will allow you to use a flat blade, like the InnovaPro™ 81-0057, 81-0063 or 81-0069, for removal. In this application, I recommend using the non-notched blade to have as much of the blade exposed as possible. One important thing to note is that when you are pre-cutting the carpet the utility blade must cut all the way through the carpet backing to be effective. If you don’t get it right the first time, you will spend a lot of time getting down off the machine to cut snagged carpet.
Lastly, it is generally best to have a helper pulling the carpet as you scrape it up. This tension on the carpet helps prevent the blade from hopping up over the carpet and also helps keep the Terminator from running over the carpet and losing traction.