Hardwood floors

K

KimDW

Cathlete
I am thinking of taking up the carpet in my house because there are hardwood floors underneath. But, I have no idea what they look like. What should I be looking for to see if they are in good shape. Obviously the finish but what about other things. The house was built in 1959. The carpet in most of the rooms is pretty worn and the people who lived there before were smokers and I've had the carpets cleaned twice and can not seem to get rid of that smell and the dog smell. I don't really have the money to spend on new carpet or possibly refinishing the floors if they turn out to be bad so I might just do one of the small bedrooms first and go from there. My other concern is that my dog won't walk on my mom's hardwood floors and is even hesitant even if there are rugs down. So I'm worried that she won't walk into certain rooms if I tear up the carpet. Would she finally adjust and walk on the rugs? What do you guys think?

Thanks
Kim
 
I have hardwood in all of my house except hubby's office. The entire house (which was built in 1955) was carpeted in yucky old carpeting from the 70s and was very worn so we pulled it up right before we moved in. It appeared that the man that owned the house prior to us (and built it initially) put the carpet down himself because there were like a gazillion of those carpet staples per square inch (know the ones that are really long like snake fangs, but really narrow at the top?) so we had lots of pulling to do, but over all the floors were in pretty good shape. We just waxed and buffed them out. I can tell you that one room, which had blood red velvet carpeting in it (ach!) had no padding left when we pulled it up. The padding had disintegrated and was basically like a layer of dirt under the carpeting! It was so gross and it made me so happy to have taken the carpeting up.

Why won't your dog walk on the floors? Slippery? I have pets but they're cats and they all are okay with the floors. Maybe it's a phobia for your pup and it can be overcome? I don't know. I hope so for your sake.
 
We have red carpet in our bedroom that the pad is pretty much gone (so weird that you had that too) and that's the room I'm thinking of starting with. Was it hard to wax and buff the floor? I'd have to put some kind of rugs down so Gracie would walk on them at all and especially in the hallway if I end up doing the whole upstairs. My dog is funny that way. She'll come in the bathroom when the rugs are down but if I'm washing them she won't go in the bathroom. She'll walk on the kitchen floor and the front landing which are both tile (one vinyl and the other ceramic). I guess it's better to have the carpet up and know what's under there.

Kim
 
Kim, you're making a great move! IMO hardwoods are SO much easier to keep clean than carpet (sorry but no one can convince me that a vaccuum picks up all the stuff in a carpet). Yes, your dog will adjust--I remember when I had to replace one of my back steps & it took my poor old dog DAYS to go down them herself. The first day I had to stand at the bottom for about 20 minutes coaxing her down, I guess b/c one step was a different color. :+

Anyway, things to look for--as far as I know, moisture & termite damage are the main things. Hard to look for unless you know where prior damage has occurred. Obviously under windows. If you're aware of any past roof leaks you'd want to check that area. Same w/plumbing problems, so you'll also want to check the flooring around & below kitchens & bathrooms.

That's all the advice I can give. I promise you'll love those floors! :)

ETA: I don't think the process is that difficult, but it's REALLY MESSY! You'll have dust all over the place from the sanding. Your best bet is to remove as much furniture as possible, cover what you can't remove. You might want to bring in a cleaning crew when your done b/c your walls, windows, etc. will be covered w/the wood dust.
 
Our house was built in th 40's so it has hardwood throughout. When we remodeled we pulled up all the carpet. There were some rooms where there were big gaps between the pieces of wood and/or giant water stains. Those rooms we just re-carpeted because they were beyond fixing. However, I did refinish the floors in other parts of the house. I went to the library and got a book that explained how to do it, then I rented the sander and bought the stain and polyurethane. All told it was only setting me back $75 total for all the supplies. I figured if I didn't like it when I was done I could always just put carpet over it! LOL Anyway I was very pleased with how it came out. It's been 15 years since I did the refinishing and they still look great.

One thing to prepare for if you do the sanding - you'll create a ton of dust. Make sure you wear a respirator and protective clothing. Also, hang a plastic sheet up to isolate the dust to one part of your house. Otherwise you'll be cleaning dust out of the whole house!
 
Kim,
I could have written this post! This describes my house (minus the dog-but with the dog pee smell from previous owners). We ripped out crap brown carpeting in two rooms, and there were TONS of those long carpet staples that left "snake fangs" as another poster described. But, ours had an additional feature...white paint that was splattered all over when the previous owners painted and didn't give a care if they got it all over the wood floors. So, with a little elbow grease, we got it off. We used Murphy's Oil Soap to clean them, and they look good. I would love to do this to our living and dining room too, but we did see some water damage, so we'll wait till we have the $ to hire a professional.

I'm curious to see what others have written.
-Jen
 
Annette Bethel

We finally put hardwoods down in the den and I love them. We have them in the hallway and dining room. So much easier to keep clean. I wish I could do the entire house in hardwood floors. Easier on the sinus and colds. Annette
 
Hi Kim,

No it wasn't hard to buff the floors out. We rented a buffer and just waxed and buffed them out. We were done in one night and that was with 5 rooms. It was harder work for us because there were so many of those crazy staples and we had to use a screw driver and hammer to loosen them enough so we could grab them with plyers and pull them out.

I guess it will all depend on the condition of your floors when you pull the carpeting up. Has the same carpet been down the entire time? You may find they look gorgeous and you don't even need to buff them out - just clean them to get the grit and dust from the carpet off of them (that was something so shocking to me....on the carpeted floors where the padding was still intact, I was amazed at how much "sand" was underneath. It was like several cups worth - and that freaked me out because that was under there the entire time - regardless of the fact that I shampooed the carpets and vaccumed regularly. Its not wonder that people with allergies have such a hard time when carpeting is in the house!)

I figure your pup will take to the flooring - it may feel strange because of the toe nails clicking, but I think they are pretty adaptive.
 
Well, I'm going to do the spare room Saturday morning. I'm turning that into my quilting/sewing room (picking up my cutting/basting table tonight!! yeah) and I need to swap beds with my mom since she has a twin and it will fit in there better. So I'll have pretty much everying moved out of there anyway and I won't have to move alot of furniture. I'm nervous about what's under there. My cousin's husband said that if we need the floors refinished he'd do it for us so that's a plus.

Kim
 
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