OK everyone, I am still a rookie and was talking to a friend of mine today about my services. He asked me if there is any way to remove Great Stuff (expanding spray foam insulation) out of carpet. I know this stuff is a pain just to get off of my hands, so I would imagine it is nearly impossible to remove from carpet, but I figured I would ask the experts on here to get your feed back. Thanks in advance! Jon
Let the great stuff completely cure for 24 hours and then take a hammer and beat it and try to break it down as much as you can and vacuum away all you can break off. The more you can remove with the hammer and vacuum the better. After that I would try some odorless mineral spirits(OMS). I got some OMS on some styrofoam before and the styrofoam just disintegrated. It may or may not work on great stuff but it is somewhere to start. I would saturate a white towel with OMS and lay it on the great stuff for 10-15 minutes and then see what happens. Do not dump OMS right on the carpet as it can damage the glues holding the carpet together and cause delamination.
Thanks Todd! It has been there for a few months so it is good and cured. I will give the hammer and OMS a shot and report back.
Please do let us know how it turns out, I have never had to deal with this one...it is just an educated guess and what I would try if I had to deal with it.
Will do, it might be a little while since he lives quite far from me, but I have it on my list so I can add it to my cheat sheet.
Seriously. I don't work without a fels bar and scissors on my hip in a cell phone holster. Even Steve T said that scissors are your best friend! Scrape out edges, clip out junk, unclog glides etc etc
I usually have my cell phone in the cell phone holder and the fels liquified in a squirt bottle. I don't have patches or tool belt on either.
So you don't like the idea of having a fels bar in a little cell phone holster? Scissors also hang right off the side, works really well. I've always thought about doing the liquid fels thing. How do you do it?
I've been able to get it out before. I used two different products, (I have to check to see which ones). I agitated with a bone spatula and extracted with an upholstery tool. It doesn't really dissolve, but with solvents and agitation it will break it loose from the carpet allowing it to be extracted.
I was just ribbing you. You remind me of Lonnie McDonald. He's an old low moisture cleaner that used to have a bunch of tools, a couple of cell phones and a hammer on his side everywhere he went. Plus, he had patches all up and down his sleeve and a CB radio in his van. As for the Fels ... I keep a cheese grator on my truck and just grate a handful of it up and throw it in a 32 oz spray bottle. Then I mix in some super hot water from my TM and shake it up. You porty hacks may have a hard time finding hot water though. Sorry ...
lol. Just a actual cell phone on the right side and a fels and scissors on the left. That's it. I once cut a fels bar in half and dropped the whole thing in the hydro force, it was interesting. PS, you remind me of a friend of mine who owns a ranch in Alabama. He's super country. In Mexico last year me and his nephew finished a giant plate of hot wings and he grabbed it and said "you boys are leaving too much meat on them bones!" And then chewed all the nasty cartilage and crud off them! Gross! Then he paid for the whole meal with his black card, super rich but you'd never know it..
Next time I get that stuff on my hand I will wait a day and get out a hammer. I will have to report back how it works
screw it use the scissors or like todd said beat the homeowner with a hammer for getting that stuff on the carpet
ok I will try to be serious for a minute. Citrus solvents will desolve styrofoam so I would try a solvent on it. See of it reacts the same on expanding foam
In my experience this stuff is pretty resistant to solvents. It's not like regular styrofoam. I have been able to successfully remove it from carpet. If my memory serves, I used Matrix POG and Matrix Spot Out. I don't know why Spot Out helped, but it seemed to. I agitated the area with a bone spatula and extracted with an upholstery tool. It didn't exactly dissolve, but it did break into smaller pieces that released from the carpet fibers. I think in this case your actually breaking the adhesive bond between the foam and the carpet rather then dissolving the foam.