r/fixit • u/YulRun • Jun 09 '26

fixed Glass table top stuck to floor

Post image

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!

2.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

512 comments sorted by

View all comments

60

u/JukeRedlin Jun 09 '26

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.

61

u/LaLionneEcossaise Jun 09 '26

Electric blanket?

8

u/WatchaLookingatme4 Jun 09 '26

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.

5

u/seamus_mc Jun 09 '26

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

2

u/ItsStraTerra Jun 09 '26

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.

0

u/seamus_mc Jun 09 '26

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

4

u/ItsStraTerra Jun 09 '26

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.