How To Remove Carpet Padding Residue From Wood Floors

Recently I pulled out more carpet from the home I purchased about a year ago.  At some point previous owners had covered pretty nice wood floors and I wanted to expose more of that.  With this round though there was a large amount of black, sticky residue left behind from the ancient carpet pad.

I initially tried just wiping it with a cloth, that just smeared it and didn't help at all.  Then I used some Murphy Oil Soap which worked decently.  I turned to Uncle Google though for more suggestions and a lot of them involved using putty knives or scrapers to remove it.  That might be fine if you are going to refinish the floors, that's not something happening soon in my world though.  Then I came across a suggestion that instantly made sense to me.

Orange Goop was suggested.  You know, the waterless hand cleaner that is for after working in the garage or with grease.  I actually had two bottles at home already, one was the grittier kind with pumice and the other without.  I used the bottle without and a little bit went a long way when applied to a rag and wiped off.  The Goop broke down that residue almost instantly.  While it did take me a while to get each spot, it did the job and didn't damage my floors.

Depending on your wood floor projects, or any project really, give Orange Goop a try if you have sticky residue and a surface you don't want messed up.  Of course, try it in a inconspicuous place to test it out and make sure it will work for your application.