Hi @Lynn Morford, I hate to jinx things, but now three months in, I LOVE the floors. I fact, I admire them many times a day (good distraction from current CV craziness). There are about a dozen spots where there were dings or tiny cracks, which freaked me out at first, but I'm pretty sure it was just from the movers. I do take care of them like a newborn child, though--sweep, vacuum, wipe, repeat. Overall, I'm very happy with them! @everdebz, we ended up gluing down. Definitely harder on my body that floating but I've learned to wear slippers or socks and I have yoga mats in most rooms to give my feet a little vacation as I walk through the house, lol. In the end, I trusted @joseph_corlett's comment about letting the contractor make the call on what is best for the situation. Granted, I still pine for the perfect floating feel of my old Junckers flooring, but apparently theirs were unique and most other flooring can't float the same way, so... Anyway, the sad fact is, you can't remove glue-downs without destroying the boards. So fingers crossed you never have to! (I put fake wood in my laundry room and we've already had three floods, so thank god for that decision.)

Sticky glue must be mechanically abraded off of the slab. No chemicals or steaming to force it further into the slab. Then the slab should be primed, leveled, and it’s ready to go. Glue can come up through the layers of the vinyl if it isn’t removed. Thinset is porous, as is wood underlayment.

Technically the 6mil polysheeting will be the 'disconnect' between the glue and the vinyl planks. You can move up to the 10mil polyusheeting and go straight over top of that old glue. How old is the home? The orange stuff looks more like old carpet pad that has melded to the concrete. How rough or thick to you think the orange stuff is? In theory, you can use a rigid vinyl plank ($8/sf like coretec) to go over top. A flexible vinyl plank is going to telegraph EVERY single bit of grit on that floor. It will make the vinyl look as if it is sitting over a sand box. Personally I like a nice laminate (12mm thick...not underlay attached = $3/sf) over 6mm cork underlay ($0.80/sf) over the 10mil polysheeting ($0.20/sf). The cork underlay will be the disconnect between the gritty carpet residue and the new laminate. Sadly, cork underlay is NOT allowed to be used with 99.8% of vinyl planks...which means you cannot use it with your chosen floor.

You also need to make sure the floor under the carpet is level with the rest of the floor where you are putting the vinyl plank. It would look nice, if you could remove all the carpet and do it all with vinyl plank, but, I understand if you cant.