Removing adhesive underlay from oak flooring

[Landycat]

Hi,
I won 40 square metres of solid oak flooring on Ebay,not nailed or glued but has 'Elastilon Basic' self adhesive underlay stuck to the underside.
I can scrape most of it off with a paint scraper,but this leaves a layer of very sticky residue I don't know how to remove.

Is there an easy way to get this stuff off without damaging the oak?

 

[Tigercubrider]

All I can suggest is to experiment to find a solvent- including asking the company.

I bought old parquet and went through several tests to find a solvent for the bitumen that had been used as glue. Eventually I found that white spirit worked - but wickes "white spirit substitute" did not.

I still have some left in the shed and may try making a jig on a small bandsaw to remove a very small amount off the bottom. The important bit would be to remove a consistent amount and end up with blocks the same size.
I also looked at a cheap Amazon desktop planer but suspected that machining the bottom off might gum up the machine before the task was done. I planned on sacrificing the machine anyway as it was circa £100.

40 sq m is quite a lot so it has to be sustainable

 

[dazlight]

Take it to a wood mil and they have a machine which will take 3mm off the bottom.

 

[foxhole]

I find lighter fuel will disolve many adhesives, or cover it in talc and leave it on.

 

[Tigercubrider]

yes- although expensive when bought as lighter fuel, exactly the same stufff is sold as "Clean Art" which dissolves spray mount adhesive - used extensively by graphic designers back in the day.
It used to be £10 a tin when Zippo lighter fuel was £2 a tin.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Azure-Naph...t=&hvlocphy=1007009&hvtargid=pla-815400910928

 

[Landycat]

I find lighter fuel will disolve many adhesives, or cover it in talc and leave it on.

I could use talc to make it easier to handle and nail the flooring to battens on my concrete floor.
Seems like a plan.

Thanks.

 

[foxhole]

Or stick it back down on self adhesive foam underlay again .

 

[Landycat]

Or stick it back down on self adhesive foam underlay again .

But then I'd be sticking the underlay to the old glue rather than the wood - seems risky.

 

[foxhole]

But then I'd be sticking the underlay to the old glue rather than the wood - seems risky.

Twice the glue .

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Acetone is pretty good for glue removal but with 40 sq m to do talc and batten sounds much easier