Pulled up some of the frickin' carpet

[Tab]

What a thankless job. :eyesroll:

The dogs have thoroughly trashed the upper hallway, but that's secondary to the stairs and the landing. I thought I'd rip up the landing (it's been peed on, pooped on, and scratched down to the plywood) in that it can't be any worse than it is. To my credit, I decided to do just the landing and not the whole stairs, to make sure I wasn't getting into anything too much.

Carpet removal sucks.

I spent the day at it, have most of it done, then I intend to paint and polyurethane the landing. If all goes well, I'll do the stairs. But man, what a PITA. I had to by a special scraper/chisel, find my needlenose pliars, pull up goodness knows how many staples, etc. etc.

Is there a simple way to spruce up stairs? Most of what I've found involves buying custom risers and treads, cutting them down, and who knows what else, and it sounds like a job best left to professionals. I don't mind taking a crack at it, but I also work, so I can't spend forever screwing around with my staircase.

- t

[hollysmom]

1. yep, it is the underlayment that turned to dust and

the staples, they must have used a million staples over my oak floor. but you really should not let the original carpet stay on the floor over 50 years.

I have done the bedrooms, the hall and stairs and the dining room, still have it left just in the living room. but it is dirty tiring work. a few water (pee) stains but mostly pretty good floor under neath.

[Tab]

11. It's been six years

Got it being "pet-resistant" (e.g.: material makes it easy to clean pet stains, which it does). Six or seven years. God help me if it made it to fifty.

[hollysmom]

13. I spent most of those years replumbing the house and redoing the electric.

I should have done it when I bought the house but were redid the upstairs first taking down a huge heavy wall and redoing the bathroom and kitchen and taking out all the rugs upstairs. I had a full time job had to help my ex's mother when she got ill, then after the divorce,I had both my parents ill and a full time job where overtime was assumed. Then sickly dog, and take care of the house myself. then had cancer and serious dental problems and .... life goes on, what can I say. I laid a huge area rug over the wall to wall so it only peeks out at the edges. Oh and I am trying to clean the wall downstairs of the mastic since I removed the tiles so I can wall paper - this is a very slow job, on the 3rd year of that. .

He challenge me and I have an excuse ready in a moment.

[X_Digger]

2. Other than new risers and treads.. just elbow grease.

Check the treads, make sure they're not cracked or split close to the edge. If you have a lot of cracked treads, it might be worth it to replace them all.

Otherwise? Securing, scraping, sanding, maybe staining, and painting or poly.

[Paper Roses]

3. What did you find under the carpet?

Might have some ideas if you have real wood floors and not just plywood.
Let us know.

[Tab]

4. No, just plywood

and I knew that, because the dogs had scratched down to that.

I'm about ready to paint. It's just been a PITA so far.

[Warpy]

5. The people who lived here before me had w2w carpeting

They also had 2 big dogs, 3 cats, a bird, and a few cages I just didn't want to look into. The place stank of animal waste.

I left the carpet in place while I painted the interior and then started to yank it up, pee, poop, and worse. I cut it into manageable sections and that part wasn't bad. They used a lot of tack strips and that part was bad. I ended up using a crowbar and hammer to get them up since they used too many nails on too many tack strips. I figure the carpet layers had just gotten their first nail guns.

Underneath was maple with black pee stains.

I elected to get the maple refinished and over the years, those stains have faded from black to light brown. I'm a weaver, so strategic placement of hand woven rugs worked to disguise them.

The only flooring I'd want carpet on is a concrete slab, and even then it would be a hard sell. I really hate the stuff and my experience pulling it up here was just the icing on a poisoned cake.

I don't know what your stairs are like. Chances are that a good paint job and a runner up the middle and held in place by runner rods would look really spiffy even if the wood underneath the paint is trashed.

[Tab]

6. Tack strips were the easy part

You have to be careful around them, but they didn't take up that much time. What sucked were all the frickin staples on the flooring.

I'll likely do the stairs but I thought it would be wise to just strip up the landing and see what that involved, before doing the whole shebang.

[Warpy]

7. You can salvage plywood stairs

by putting a bullnose on the treads via milled lumber and painting the risers off white and the treads reddish brown. You really do need the runner down the middle, though, the paint won't be durable enough for such a high traffic area.

Yes, I've been poor.

Or you can do it right.

[Tab]

8. What's a bullnose?

Although, yes, I was going to paint the treads brown and the risers white.

[Warpy]

9. The bullnose is a rounded part of the tread that sticks out past the riser below.

The other side of the tread is milled flat to sit flush against the next riser.

The half round milled lumber tacked onto the raw playwood edge (if your stairs are plywood) will fake a bullnose edge on the tread.

I love the milled lumber section of the lumberyard. I've faked some pretty remarkable things will milled lumber.

[Lugnut]

10. It's an ugly job.

We ripped out every last piece of wall-to-wall carpeting four years ago. We originally had hardwood floors in this house when it was new. The carpeting was installed when the kids came along to cushion them for the inevitable falls from toddlers learning to walk. The tack strips didn't cause any major damage and the floors were still beautiful. All we have in here now is wood and porcelain tile on the floors.

[Tab]

12. I grew up when W2W carpeting was the hallmark of success

The goal, the achievable destination. This was 60's and 70's.

I've now learned carpets are a major PITA. I like them in my bedroom, but that's about it.`

[Auntie Bush]

14. To each his own. I have W2W in every room in the house. and love them.

I even have them in the master bathroom. (Tile around the toilet and the rest is carpeted) Love them on my bare feet getting out of the shower. Never had a problem. The grandkids love playing on them...so do the dogs. They can sleep anywhere and be comfortable. They are especially nice in cold weather areas. Wouldn't like them down South.