We had beautiful pine engineered flooring installed over a concrete floor and selected to install it with the glue down method. We believed the installer to be experienced with glue down installation or we would have done the job ourselves. The adhesive was Mapei Adhesive. It has been 2 to 3 weeks since installation and the installer has not removed the glue which is spotting and dulling the wood all over the place. He has been waiting for some "wipe" removers which the distributor has failed to get to him.

Is there hope?

If it's Mapei 990, it will come clean with paint thinner, ( even when cured ) ,the thinner will not harm the finish of the floor. Mapei states to remove adhesive from the surface of the hardwood, as you are working, or immediately. I have seen this adhesive leave a "cloud" in the finish of bamboo flooring, if left to cure on the surface. Not to alarm you, hopefully that's not the case here.

If left too long, it will etch the prefinish.

The longer you wait, the harder it is going to be to remove, if not become permanent.

Likely to have some glossy spots left even if the adhesive comes off. After that time frame, your probably gonnna have to be pretty aggressive, and that usually burnishes the finish. How much glue did he leave on the floor?

Thank you to everyone who responded to my post. Today, the flooring company sent out wipes to help us begin the process of removing the glue (now approximately 3 weeks old.) The wipes, which are made specifically to remove epoxy glue, do seem to work. I say "seem to work" because they sent enough to do a 5' x 5' area! You must lay a wipe down on the affected area for 5 minutes and then wipe the area with another clean wipe. While it did seem to get up some glue (with my finger nails involved too!) other areas we were not so successful as of yet. We will keep trying. There is glue on every board; it is pretty wide spread with spotting. These wipes definitely are an improvement to any paint thinner we have used which is not working at this point. The installer claims he wiped every board at installation with paint thinner. However, I don't see how he could have missed so many spots. Also, the installers have said that perhaps they used one rag the through the installation process and unknowingly applied glue from the rag??

Possible they used a dirty rag, and just smeared glue around, ( or a convenient excuse ) I'm not sure if Mapei has this, but Bostik has a liquid urethane adhesive remover , for their adhesive,and also the "wipes", the wipes are just saturated with the liquid. Sounds like you need the liquid, like I said dont know if Mapei has it, but you may want to try Bostik's, if they dont. ( they're both urethane adhesives ).

I do not understand why this has become the homeowner's problem. Shouldn't the installers be getting this floor clean?

Good Question !!

Yes, the installers should be getting the floor clean, but they haven't yet and it's been 3 weeks. I thought we had to begin getting involved.

It's a good idea to grind them out,. until THEY make it right.
I'm afraid any harm you do to the floor, trying to remove the adhesive YOURSELF and physically trying to solve their problem, may end up being your problem, if it results in damage.

Okay, thanks. They are actually working w/ me to resolve the problem. I am not doing this alone. I've just been been in there with them. They know they have to resolve this.