I have done this before in a other house we used to own. I rented the drum sander the edger the large buffer etc took a few days but wasn't that hard. The other floor was in fair shape and just had a carpet pad stapled on.

The "new old house" has maple floors but when I pulled up the carpet on this one there was a carpet pad again and I thought for a second great this is going to be just like the other house. Unfortunately the entire floor is covered in a black substance left over from an earlier carpet. You know the kind I am not sure what its called but it has a black pad. Any suggestions on the best way to take this up as I can see the trowel marks in some places from the glue. Not sure if I should just go rent the big drum sander and have it but I am afriad that would clog up pretty quick.

Thanks T

Haven't done a floor like that in a long time, but I do know that old black adhesive can be nasty. I've seen a few ruined floors from sanding too far; digging down too far in the good parts and still leaving the adhesive in others.

If it were me today, I'd get 2-3 professionals "bids" for the job and when they're there ask them how they'll do it... chat a bit and get their take on how to do it effectively. My guess is that I'd hear "yeah, we go through alot of sanding sheets and just work it carefully", but maybe they've got a trick up their sleeve.

... then from there decide whether I'm confident enough to do it right, or fork out the bucks to have them do it with a guarantee.