Carpet Be Gone!

Posted by Kristin Abraham Aug 10, 2006

My friend Kevin just bought a condo so as soon as he signed his life away we headed to the new place to rip out the carpet. But of course I first seranaded his new neighbors with my rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb on his accordian.

In the condo Kevin became hesitant about ripping out the carpet. Now we had been through this several times in the last couple weeks and he hates carpeting, the previous owner had a cat, and the condo is over 60 years old. It needed and update (the carpet wasnt that old though)and he had his heart set on hardwood.

His mother hadn't helped the issue. She's from the era of wall to wall carpet. Its something people of her generation dreamed of and were pretty excited when they got it. So in her mind ripping out every shred of carpet and replacing it with hardwood was a travesty.

Kevin was replaying his earlier phone conversation with mom as I tried to pry up the carpet in the corner. Finally he began helping and we ripped it out of the dining room. Once he saw what was underneath his fears were pretty much laid to rest. I told him to tell his mom that we didn't take out the carpet, we cleaned the litter box!

The carpet and the pad ripped right out. Disgusting to touch but not a problem. Then I was stuck with what I consider the worst job, I became the staple plucker. Armed with a screwdriver and a needlenosed pliers I went to work removing every single staple.

The floor underneath was tile that was over 60 years old. It was crumbly, had frightening black stains and possibly asbestos. We were probably not as careful as we should have been but we just wanted to get done and out.

After several hours we had the dining room and 2 bedrooms finished. I left him to do the livingroom the following day. But I'm going along to pick up the new bamboo floor and to learn how to lay it. I'm hoping to have a new article on do it yourself hardwood floors soon.