What is this weird stuff under my carpet?

Question

I have hardwood floors all around the condo except in the bedrooms, in the kitchen and in the corridor, i have a small carpet in my living room, every day if i lift up the carpet we find this white powder in the area the the carpet covered, i went onto my balcony and started beating it out with a baseball bat.... But that didn't work too well, every time i vacuum the floor under the carpet, once i put the carpet back down and lift it up again the white powder is there... first of all what is this stuff and how do i get rid of it?

Answer 1

Yes, this is the carpet adhesive used to stick the carpet down and with age it will dry out and crack leaving the white powder you find.  To get rid of this problem all you need to do is to use a wall scraper or other tool with a blade and scrape along the wooden underlying floor to lift the remnants and the sand the floor - hoover and then sand again with a finer grain of paper this should solve the problem.  To re-fix the carpet just use fresh glue or gripper rods (although be careful using these with young kids as they can sometimes stub their toe on the nails!!)

Regards

Answer 2

Try for dry cleaner.

Answer 3

A yellow looking substance is generally carpet adhesive and can be lightly scraped or chipped off easily, and an all purpose adhesive remover will work. Once the adhesive is removed, the floor can be sanded with a coarse paper and then re-sanded with finer paper.

Answer 4

could be anthrax,   do you live near any terrorists?

Answer 5

that's the glue holding the carpet together, its deteriorating