It depends upon how old the carpet is, when/what glue was used. I had it on my back porch when first moving in. This was outside, so it got some wear and exposure to elements. All came off very easily except for the sides. I had to use a roof scraper to get that off.

If the current carpet is not in terrible condition (odors, stains), could you just carpet over it? There are many types of carpets available now that wear like iron and could be installed rather than have to remove all and glue again. And I doubt if it would be more expensive. Lots of deals going on. Carpet outlets carry industrial carpet which I'd go for and looks very much like indoor/outdoor...a personal take.

My sister had this problem, and her carpet man told her to just carpet over it.

Oceanna:
You bring back horrible, awful, gut-wrenching memories. When we moved into a house 32 years ago, the owners had glued down carpet over old wood floors. We didn't know until we went to redo the room for my daughter. I used all manners of tools, an iron, and a great number of four letter words. When we pulled up the carpet, it left chunks of the rubber backing. We couldn't carpet over it because the new carpet would have had lumps. It took days to remove it. Good luck. I think I would take gracie01's advice, if possible. Once you start to remove it, I think you'll be committed. Good luck.
Dee

Oh, and BTW, good luck for a third time. Maybe the new stuff is easier to remove?

Oceanna....listen to Dee! I had a similar experience. I bought this house a couple of years ago & asked the previous owner to leave the pellet stove that he had installed in the finished room in the basement. I thought that the carpet was fine (a gray berber). Long story short...he took his stove & where said stove's platform was left a 6 x 6 foot square of pristine WHITE berber carpet! I bought new carpet & "carpet man" told me that it would cost 300.00 to remove the old carpet. I figured that was something that I could do & save 300.00 I hired a couple of kids & told them 50.00 each - 2 hours later they came upstairs with a couple of handfuls of yarn! Okay I'll do it. How hard could this be? Extremely hard!!! I used a roof scraper, a dremel & any other tool that I could find. I ended up using a Fenn which fits under the carpet & cuts it away from the glue. Once the carpet was up it was really hard to get the glue off of the cement floor. Can you just lay it down & use the existing carpet as padding? Good luck - what a tough job!

I had some I/O carpet glued down on the back stoop of my first house. In a last minute sprint to get it ready for a coming home tour, I began to rip it up. It was a hassle, even for a roughly 5' x 5' space. I had my handyman put down quarry tile in its place -- much nicer!

Like Dee we had encountered the foam backed stuff glued to our HW floors. It had berber carpet over that, it came up fine, but that glued down mess...ugh.

We used a floor scraper, sanders, putty knives...finally we bit the bullet and bought chemical remover and it loosened the glue. This was on hardwood, tho, not concrete. I'd also consider carpeting over. If you can't, you could probably try muriatic acid over the glue...whatever you use wear protection!

Is this an indoor room or outdoor? Our house has a 12 x 24 screened and covered patio. When we bought it there was dark blue/green indoor outdoor carpet in that space that I knew someday would be replaced with slate. So one day I started pulling the carpet up. OMG what a mess! The top carpet was actually glued on top of another carpet (brown/black) which was glued to the cement slab. It was a real project. Took me weeks to get all the carpet out. Of course this was not working on it continuously. My back can't take too much of that at a time. Finally got down to the cement and there was lots of glue to be removed. I would scrape at it for an hour or two at a time. When we finally got it smooth enough to tile over we pressure washed it really well and then tiled it with a light colored slate like porcelain tile. This is my favorite room in the house now! I can see why people just carpet over carpet, but it sure it a mess to remove!

Thank you so much, ladies! You've convinced me I don't want that job, and saved me a major headache.

This is in my laundry room downstairs. It is not stinky. I'm just thinking about re-decorating that space in a few months. Reading your comments makes me think I love that carpet, bleach marks (which I mostly hid with craft paint) and all.

I had wondered if I could carpet over it. Seems reasonable. Also, I could throw a throw rug on top of it and hide most of it. Also, I could decorate with that color in mind.

It's I/O carpet -- you know, kind of like thick felt. Would carpet tile stick on top of it?

Also, could it be painted? Or is that stupid? It's dark burgundy/brown.

That carpet is the really old stuff I had. Jeesh Oceana, I hadn't thought of putting carpet tile on top. Guess you could buy one and try it. I'm still on the carpet over the old stuff solution. Also, with your creativity, a throw rug would always give you the ability for another inspiration.

Funny about the craft paint, I use permanent colored markers on some spots and to change colors of liked patterns found on pillows so they match.

Oh, what a clever solution, Emagineer! I have often thought, "If I could just add a little red/blue/green/whatever to that print, it would go in here much better." I have used permanent markers on clothing that got an oopsie on it.

I do have some leftover carpet that went on my stairs. Not sure if it's enough, though. The laundry room is right next to the stairs landing.