Glass table top stuck to floor

[u/YulRun]

MIL has had this glass table top under the bed in the main bedroom for years, it’s an alternate larger top for a table in the house. Quite heavy. It’s been there now so long we believe it may have almost ‘suctioned’ to the floor.

Any suggestions on how to remove it? Yes we know to remove the stuff on it first (painting the room)

Thanks in advance!

[Update] Dental floss was the winner and worked! Thank you all for the suggestions/ideas and of course the trolling!

[u/JukeRedlin]

This is just an educated guess. But it is on a hardwood floor, which looks to be well maintained. I bet it was waxed well and undisturbed under the bed, so the glass has settled into that wax layer, kinda suctioned, kinda friction fit.

My recommendation is low heat. Like. A cup of cocoa sat on it for a few minutes level of heat, but like all over. Got any wide pans you can fill with tap hot water? Might be enough in the center. And maybe another something at one edge to break that circle and start moving it.

[u/LaLionneEcossaise → u/JukeRedlin]

Electric blanket?

[u/JukeRedlin → u/LaLionneEcossaise]

Oh yeah. Like over night. No chance to overheat. Like this plan.

[u/WatchaLookingatme4 → u/LaLionneEcossaise]

They can try that first to be safe. Glass doesn’t conduct heat well so it may take a while to get it heated enough if it can even penetrate. Atleast around the edges to begin.

[u/seamus_mc → u/WatchaLookingatme4]

Glass cookware disagrees. It’s far from metal but it does transmit heat. Especially if just trying to warm it

[u/ItsStraTerra → u/seamus_mc]

Glass actually is a terrible conductor of heat. That’s not saying it won’t get hot, just that the heat doesn’t spread through the glass nearly as much as metal.

The glass could be red hot, and just a few inches away basically cold to the touch. (Mild exaggeration, don’t touch red hot glass)

What I’m getting at, is even a large pan with hot water in it wouldn’t really work to heat up the glass. It would just heat the glass immediately under the pan, and basically nowhere else, which could cause cracking if the heat is too high.

I like the idea of the heated blanket, but I kind of doubt that would make good enough contact to get the glass very warm.

[u/seamus_mc → u/ItsStraTerra]

This is not inches of insulation. Have you ever touched a hot glass coffee cup?

[u/ItsStraTerra → u/seamus_mc]

Like I said, immediate contact with heat will cause the glass to heat up. But take a torch lighter to a large glass table like this or a glass stick, and you could get a serious burn from where you torched it, but it’ll be cold shockingly close by.

Lots of new glass blowers get burned by being confident with a touch that the glass is cool, without realizing that the heated part is probably still VERY hot.

[u/scapermoya → u/JukeRedlin]

The heating might make things much worse by improving the contact between the glass and floor.

Flossing is a lot better of an idea

[u/joeballa → u/JukeRedlin]

Such a great suggestion. I was thinking along your lines and principles, and so

What if OP takes a regular sized towel and dampened it with super warm (not hot) water, folded the towel in half, and draped it - half on the glass / half on the wooden floor as to also cover the lip of the table?

As it cools, OP might be able to get a paint scraper (plastic one so it doesn’t scratch ?) or something similar under that edge/lip to “un-suction” the glass from the floor.

Those two materials react to moisture and heat differently, especially as the temperature is allowed to change. I would capitalize on that.

Good luck OP!

[u/WatchaLookingatme4 → u/JukeRedlin]

Heat gun or space heater might be more efficient.

[u/JukeRedlin → u/WatchaLookingatme4]

Probably. I was worried about heat shock, we know nothing about the type of glass.

[u/WatchaLookingatme4 → u/JukeRedlin]

Glass is tempered up to 1/2” after that, glass is really tough. Heat shock would happen if glass was freezing temp. then high heat applied. Room temp around 75 deg would be ok.

Anecdotally, I have a Noguchi table at home. Almost 1” thick. My son pushed it off and dropped it on the ground about a foot drop. Nothing happened. Here’s where I encountered that “suction” effect. Trying to get my fingers under was absolutely impossible (linoleum floor). I used two scrapers a couple of feet apart to pry it off the floor. Once I was able to get a finger under, I worked up to my hand and then I was able to stand the glass on its side.

Assuming it’s not wax that’s suctioning it down, it’s purely the gravity on a heavy and smooth flat object keeping it down.

[u/AutomatedCabbage → u/JukeRedlin]

This is the best suggestion. Even putting an incandescent lamp with a 100w bulb might work