Carpet Glue Residue Causes Sealer to Bead Up

By Chris Sullivan – ChemSystems, Inc.

Question:

pulled carpet from a room and then cleaned the underlying concrete floor at least eight times with a trisodium phosphate (TSP) solution. I also used a product from Home Depot called Jasco (a no-rinse TSP substitute) to clean the hard-to-remove glue. I washed the floor several times with water and let it dry. Next, I applied two coats of Kemiko stain with a garden sprayer followed by three coats of Chem-Coat sealer, applying it as directed with a lamb's wool mop and allowing it to dry between coats. Finally, I applied a Chem-Coat protective finish. The floor came out beautiful, but after it dried I saw a small area of the surface where it looked like the sealer or finish coat did not take. It appears as beaded-up water and does not shine in that area. I would like to correct the problem because it's noticeable, but I don't know what to do. Can you offer suggestions?

Answer:

Carpet glue is some of the most stubborn stuff out there. I am impressed that you took so much time to clean it off. Most stain applicators I know would just place a microtopping over the concrete and stain the microtopping vs. taking time to strip off large areas of glue residue.

As far as the sealer beading up, it sounds like some remaining glue residue is causing "fish eyeing." This phenomenon occurs when chemical contamination interferes with the sealer's ability to wet out (i.e., penetrate into the surface). My suggestion is to apply several coats of finish wax to even out the gloss. If that doesn't do the trick, you may have to go back and strip and reclean that area. This is a messy, time-consuming job and there's no guarantee it will solve the issue. Usually the application of floor wax does the trick.

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