Removing carpet gunk

Q: How can we get some old carpet gunk off a hardwood floor? Remnants of foam underpad remain stuck to the wood.

A: This is a common problem that can be challenging to deal with. Start by getting a long-handled metal ice scraper, the kind with a straight blade that you might use to chip a frozen walkway. If the tool isn’t new, have the edge sharpened to a steep bevel angle (about 60 or 70 degrees). This will be your power scraper. Don’t bother using a dull one. Remove as much of the carpet foam as you can with a two-handed scraping action. You should be able to get most of it off this way. If more than a skiff remains, you'll need to soften it chemically and scrape again before sanding and refinishing the floor. Although a few products are specially formulated for carpet foam removal, some of the new safer, citrus-based paint strippers often work just as well. Since the foam could be held down with any one of a number of adhesives, you might have to experiment until you hit on something that works. Once softened, your ice scraper will do a great job getting the remaining mess off.