Hi,

I am renovating an apartment, and my contractor has just taken out the old wood floor, revealing a layer of black glue underneath (cutback adhesive, from the 1980’s/90’s)

is it best to 1) leave the cutback alone; 2) encapsulate it; or 3) remove it?

the goal is to first lay down a sound/moisture barrier (a product called Floor Muffler), followed by plywood subfloor (nailed down), and lastly hardwood floor (also nailed down).

I’m concerned about the smell. I don’t want to live in an apartment that constantly smells like petroleum (or whatever it is). Those VOC’s can’t be good from a health perspective.

Would the smell go away over time? If it won’t, would the hardwood + plywood + Floor Muffler combo be sufficient to seal up the cutback? I do realize that by nailing down the plywood subfloor, it will puncture the Floor Muffler and nullify its moisture barrier properties.

What would you guys suggest?

On a related note, do you think the uneven layer of old cutback would create any leveling issues for the new floor?

The cut-back by itself will not be a problem. It is sticky so sweeping debris off of it is problematic. Did the room smell with the old floor intact over the cut-back?Covering the cut-back with the floor muffler will make it much more pleasant to lay another floor on top. It would be very time consuming to remove the cut-back,
you would need to take up the old sub-floor to get all of it out.