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Now, this is in our second bedroom, the one with the computer and otherwise used as an office and a place for much of my stuff. Yes, the room where the brilliance that is this blog is written. It got a little old going to work every morning in here and smelling it, so the carpet had to go. Last weekend was the time to do it, so it got done. And it had to get done in a weekend so I could work on Monday. We removed the carpet in the living room, hallway and bedroom #1 before we moved in. The carpet in this second bedroom was still in good shape so I decided to keep it at that time. I kind of wish we removed it back then, but I remember being pretty tired of removing carpet at that time, too, so that may have factored into my decision.
This time, just one room was more than enough for me. My knees still hurt and my wife and I both still ache from the work needed to get this done. It was a lot of stuff to move out of that room and back, but working on a floor is all down low work. I don't do well with low work these days. I remember telling my wife at one point, "The next carpet layer I meet I'm going to punch right in the mouth." I won't, but they just go overboard with the hammer stapler and nails, it seems. On the bright side, we have no more carpet to be removed. At least the floor cleaned up pretty well, but it is noticeably a little rougher than the floors in the rest of the house
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| After |
Two things to end on. First, I know I have two desk chairs at the moment. One is for relaxing, the chair I enjoy, the other is for work, the chair that is better for my back sitting up and working. I plan on looking for a better chair that can be for both, but I may have to spend more than I want. Second, I took a bunch of pictures (more after the break!) and even a short time lapse video of myself removing the carpet and padding, before the real work began. You can watch the time lapse video here if you want. I kept it private but I think you should be able to see it if I link it - if not please let me know. But remember, I don't want to hear any plumber-butt jokes. That's a warning!
7 comments:
I know the joys of a carpet that smells of old dogs... unfortunately nothing works to remove the smell, as you say. But, ours will have to stay until next year, sadly.
You did a great job on refinishing that floor! How did you do it?
Looks great now; I love the rug.
And yes, Mr BW has been lifting carpet and sawing it up so we can get it out of the house, ready for the first room of carpet fitting next week.
Looks like a different system of carpet laying happens in the US - over here they use 'carpet gripper' around the edges. This is thin pieces of wood about an inch wide, with many short nails in them, over which the carpet is stretched.
Ah, I've now watched the video. That looked like hard work.
Like you, lots of chairs for sitting on while doing tasks, and flat brown boxes get used!
I still can't quite work out how you got the finish so good on the wood?
Thank you, BW, it does look as good as we could have expected.
We do have the carpet gripper strips all around the perimeter, even in the closet. Look close, they're there. What you see in the video was really the easiest part. (At the end of the video I was starting on those gripper strips by the closet.) Crawling around and getting up those carpet gripper strips and all the staples they used for the padding was the real work. All my best to Mr BW, it is not enjoyable work.
While I was working on removing all those my wife was scraping the stuck padding off the floor. The carpet had been there a very long time and maybe all that shampooing stuck the padding to the floor even more, not sure.
Once all that was scraped off that was able to be, we scrubbed the floor with Murphy's Wood Oil Soap and rinsed plenty with a mop. That's all we did for finishing it, then we put the rug over it. Hard to believe someone would cover up hardwood floors with carpet. They're not showroom nice, but still pretty dang good.
I'd never heard of Murphy's Wood Oil Soap, but we can get it in the UK, so I shall try some soon! I like that it is natural product and contains citronella oil so keeps bugs away too. Also useful for cleaning brushes rather than using white spirit, the reviews say.
The gripper, like most things in Coven Nord, was not put down properly, so was dead easy to remove. Just for once, that worked out well. And, again luckily, there is some kind of weird thick paper stuff and/or old newspapers underneath the disintegrating underlay, which means we luckily don't have the mess to clear (at least from the carpet) that you did.
Thanks for the info, it will come in useful.
The grippers had nails every 5 or 6 inches, They come pre-started so no mess, just one swing and the nail goes in. I wound up breaking the strip at almost every nail, then just pulling the nails. On smaller pieces and where they deem needed they place what is a longer nail manually. Basically a real pain to remove. Their thought is to put down the new floor as best they can. They have no regard whether someone will want to undo the work.
Newspaper under the padding is an interesting thought. I wonder if it would make it easier to remove the padding or if it would glue to the floor with a pissy cat and much shampooing?
Murphy's is good stuff. We used it on the rest of the floors when we did the same 11 years ago.
That looked like hard work and I laughed when the cat supervisor popped in from time to time. We'll have that job to look forward to next year once the damp course has been done and my knees feel the pain already! You've both done a good job there.
Yes BW...old carpets and the smell of old dogs. I know it well. I've also made a note of Murphy's Old Wood soap. Thank you for that Scott.
Thank you, delcatto. Yes, Hamish always has to keep tabs on what goes on around here! It was just on of those jobs you just roll up your sleeves and get to work. The room is mostly put back together now, just a few things to go through and a new filing cabinet is on its way.
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