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Discovering Your Hardwood Floor, Part 1

© John J. Pascarella

I remember when my wife and I first looked at the house we now own. As my wife walked though with the realtor, I poked around the basement, under the sinks, and around the outside. When I went back into the house, I noticed that the cold air returns were in the floor of the dining room. Since the floors in the living room and dining room were wall-to-wall carpeting, I lifted out the register to see if I could determine what was underneath the carpeting. Hiding under a layer of 70's era harvest gold were two inch wide strips of tongue-and-groove hardwood.

Now that I have gotten around to removing the carpet in the dining room, I can assess the condition of my hardwood floor and decide if I want to restore it, replace it or recarpet it. The process is quite simple and if you are comfortable with a hammer, pliers, nails, and a nail set, you should give it a try.

The steps we will look at this month are: Getting To Your Hardwood Floor, Assessing The Floor, and Floor Prep. Next month we'll look at floor problems and solutions and in July, the topic will be refinishing your hardwood floors. Now, if you're ready to discover your hardwood floor, let's start.

Getting To Your Hardwood Floor: The easiest floor covering to remove is wall-to-wall carpet, because it is only held down along the edges of the room. This is done with tack strips, strips of plywood which have tacks sticking through and angled so that when the strips are nailed to the floor, the tacks point to the wall. These tacks grip the backing of the carpet when it is stretched and keeps it firmly against the wall. To release the carpet from the tack strip, carefully pry up a corner of the carpet. When you have the corner loose, just pull up as you move along the wall until all sides are loose. Now, fold the carpet over so that you can get to the backing and cut through it with a razor knife. Carpet is heavy and will be easier to carry out of the house when it's cut into smaller pieces.

Once the carpet has been removed, you can begin on the padding. The padding will be either rubber, foam, or felt. The padding should be held down with staples. Pull up the padding and carry it out, cutting it into smaller pieces if needed. Once the padding is up, carefully pull up the staples that held it to the floor. Use a flat bladed screwdriver to carefully pry up the staple so you can grab it with the pliers and pull it out. sometimes the staple will break off. If there isn't enough staple to grab, gently tap the staple into the floor with a hammer.

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