So we bought a new house. New to us at least. The house is actually more than 100 years old. It was built in 1903 according to the records.
So needless to say, this old house needs quite a few updates. One of the main things I wanted to change was the carpet. It was green. I don’t like the color green. And I especially didn’t like this green. It was sort of a pea green.
We pulled up a corner of the carpet to see what was underneath. To our delight, there were the original hardwood floors. We weren’t sure what condition they were in, but we decided we wanted the carpet up nonetheless.
The carpet pulled up pretty easily. Travis used a utility knife and cut the carpet into strips as he went. Then we pulled up the foam padding between the carpet and the wood. We both wore dust masks, which I highly recommend especially if the carpet you’re pulling up is old. We didn’t wear masks the first day when we pulled up the living room carpet and we both had sore throats the next day. After we started wearing masks, we didn’t have sore throats anymore.
And lo and behold, the hardwood underneath was in great condition! And I think it is a beautiful color! I was so happy!
A lot of the padding came up pretty easily. But some of it stuck to the floor and made a huge mess. I was able to use my shoe to push the padding off the floor. It took some time, but really it’s just a matter of scraping it all off.
Travis then used a hammer and flat pry bar to pull up the tack strips and any remaining nails.
As he was doing that, I was working my way around the room pulling up staples using a flat screwdriver and needle nose pliers for the tough ones.
After we swept up all the remnants, we sprayed the floors down with Aquashine Floor Cleaner and wiped them down with a rag. We redid the floors in the living room, dining room, and hallway. It made such a huge difference! The house looks much less old now, especially with all our beautiful furniture inside.
Check out the tools below — everything you need to DIY and go from Carpet to Hardwood.
Interesting that there was hardwood flooring underneath a carpet in a home from 1903. It’s also rather odd that it was in such great condition, but I am glad it all worked out for you. When you were pulling up your carpets, did you do a deep clean on them first? Is that something you would recommend?
It was very interesting. In fact, the lady we bought the home from (who grew up in that house), had no idea there was hardwood under the floors! She was shocked when she came to visit. We did not do a deep clean, so I can’t say whether I recommend it or not.
I completely understand why you removed the carpet! It really looks better without it! By the way for some months already I have no carpets at home and I feel great! Having them was an endless cleaning process! The kids are spilling food and drinks, the dog always manages to do make it dirty and all the vacuuming and scrubbing was just too much! It isn’t bad without the carpets..not at all! Thanks for sharing and good luck with the house renovation! 🙂
Isabel recently posted…The art of carpet cleaning – an overview
Thanks Isabel! It’s a lot of mopping as my basement is very dusty, so anytime you come upstairs from the basement the floors have lots of dusty footprints. But otherwise, it is very easy to manage! I just love the look of it!