Mystery Gunk on Stairs

[Willa]

There are some areas on the painted wood stairs going to the second floor that I assumed were some type of flooring adhesive. They are spongy and soft to the touch, and bear the impression of the backing of whatever had formerly been on the stairs. When I did some scraping, this mystery stuff seems a lot like glazing putty. It is nearly white, and has an identical texture to chewing gum (chewed chewing gum).

Does anyone know what this stuff might be ? Was it used to level out the floors before lino or carpet or what ? I have one stair out of thirteen scraped. I don't know if I will scrape them all or paint them over with a lighter color and put future scraping plans on the backburner, as there are more pressing issues.

[Gothichome]

Could have been a natural latex based mastic to glue treads or carpet down.

[SkipW]

I had something similar on my stairs when I tore up the carpet, but I believe it was from a prior floor covering and the PO's just left it and covered it. My guess was glue to adhere or prevent slippage on individual stair treads that were applied.

I found that heat and a good scraping got most of it off, then acetone and a scotch pad to finish. It didn't take too long (a day), it was just a PITA.

[Willa]

This goo seems to peel up with some encouragement, though it does take a thin layer of the uppermost wood fibers with it. I find the gummy-ness of it strange, as most adhesives tend to dry out over time or they don't retain the resilient texture ?

Whoever applied it was certainly generous with it.

[Mick_VT]

As it is gooey I might try soaking it with various solvents, mineral spirits, alcohol, even maybe paint stripper to see if something will dissolve it.

[1918ColonialRevival]

I second Mick_VT's approach. It sounds like some kind of adhesive to keep carpeting in place. I'd start with either naphtha or mineral spirits, as they won't harm the finish of the stairs underneath. Once its soaked for a few minutes, try getting it up with some #0000 steel wool.

[Texas_Ranger]

Did you ever have latex-backed carpet in the US? In Europe most cheaper wall-to-wall has and had a foam backing that crumbles or gets sticky after a while and some of it usually remains on the subfloor/old wood floor if you pull up the carpet.

[Willa]

Texas Ranger - I know well the misery of deteriorating latex rubber backing. It's horrible ! Whether that stuff crumbles in chunks or turns to brittle dust it is bad. Whatever this goo is a type of product that was spread in paste or putty form.

I have decided I am going to paint the already painted stairs, and leave my goo investigations for a time in the future. I could spend weeks picking at the goo under paint, but I think conquering the calcimine paint situation in the bathroom is a better use of my time right now.

Mick and 1918CR - the goo is under a couple of layers of paint - both oil and latex, so I don't know how easily a solvent could penetrate ? When my goo battles resume I will try several approaches, including a heat gun, paint stripper, etc. to see what might prevail.

[Mick_VT]

Mick and 1918CR - the goo is under a couple of layers of paint - both oil and latex, so I don't know how easily a solvent could penetrate ? When my goo battles resume I will try several approaches, including a heat gun, paint stripper, etc. to see what might prevail.

To me that screams "heat gun!"

[Texas_Ranger]

Whatever this goo is a type of product that was spread in paste or putty form.

That sounds more like an adhesive then. Last summer I had the very dubious pleasure of helping a friend remove carpet tiles only installed two or three years ago and the adhesive that moron used was rubbery and slightly gooey too.

Now that was a fun story... installing beige carpet tile in a hallway was a piss-poor choice in the first place if you ask me. Having a jobless hairdresser install it thinking he needed the money (although in reality he did want the money but would really have preferred getting it without getting his hands dirty, from the way he talked he REALLY didn't want to work!) was a lot dumber still. The icing on the cake was not having enough carpet and filling in with salt & pepper tiles that were thinner than the others.

I'll have to try and find the pictures but believe me, the results were horrible! When the owner finally got an agent because she wanted to rent out the place, the agent point-blank told her the (never-used) carpet would have to go if she wanted to get any sort of decent rent for the apartment. Which is why her daughter-in-law and I got the questionnable honour of removing that handywork and replacing it with click-fit vinyl. Vinyl that promptly pulled apart at the seams within days even though the old carpet adhesive still kept it stuck to the subfloor.