how to tell if you have hardwood floors under carpet

If a user is capable of bearing the extra cost then it’s definitely a safer route to get underlayment done. That doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t hardwood floors. The best place to check and see would be to pull up the carpet in well hidden closet somewhere if possible. Carpets are prone to holding dust, skin, and hair. Remove a floor heating vent with the screwdriver. I somehow missed this, I’m so sorry! Hardwood Floor Cleaners: These devices are incredibly useful as they give you the ability to clean your floors much easier than you ever imagined. Here’s the easiest way to know if you have wood floors: If the room has a floor vent, remove it {they’re rarely screwed in} & carefully push your fingers under the pad to lift & reveal. You can classify noises into two categories: airborne or impact. That’s what typically takes the hardest hit. If you discover a fresh pet stain on a finished hardwood floor and you suspect it's been there for more than 4 hours, douse the spot with a mild acid like vinegar, which will at the very least neutralize any ammonia (which is an alkali) that may have formed and will arrest its corrosive ability. Which is partially true. Dust your rug before you get into the details and make sure you don’t have any dirt piles that can be removed easily with the help of a carpet brush. I feel all homes benefit from the character of sand and stain hardwood, but it is typical of a Tudor. Laying a solid-hardwood strip floor is easier and faster if you choose a prefinished product to avoid the extra work of sanding, staining and finishing. Installing Hardwood Floors With a few careful preparations, elbow grease and a weekend, you can have beautiful new floors. Once you have the old carpet and the pad removed you will be left with thin wooden strips (called Tackless) around the edges of the room which are nailed into the subfloor every 5 inches. Especially those who believe, hardwood floors are robust to survive without an underlayment. Carpet, Padding, Strips, Staples, Nails, Glue. A liquid is an enemy of hardwood floors. Depending on what type of floor you have the need might vary. Consult your local building department to determine regulations on asbestos removal. Carpet vs. hardwood flooring - which is better? This seems like a lot of work and effort. Determine the type of surface finish used on the hardwood floor. Amazon link to Great products that every DIYer and Handyman should know about. level 2 … If you have big nail holes in your hardwoods, you might need to fill them in with some wood putty, but in our case the Rejuvenate filled in the tiny staple holes just fine. If the buyer prefers carpet, they can then choose their own carpet or even get an area rug. And how to put your carpet back down if you don't. These wood strips contain hundreds of very sharp barbed points that grabbed and held the edges of the carpet down. For example, if you leave a rug lying on your hardwood floors for too long, it can cause discoloration. Laminate flooring is synthetic, making it more affordable, and it’s also more durable than hardwood. A friend of ours suggested that if there’s a problem with the wood, we can use laminate flooring . Whether your style ranges from classic to contemporary, you can find a hardwood floor that best suits your home. Wider boards with long grain strokes may be hemlock, a common softwood material for older homes. If you already have hardwood flooring in some areas of your home and are looking to add more, trying to match the two surfaces is next to impossible. When you have furniture on your flooring, it only takes one push of a chair or movement of a couch to scratch the surface of the hardwood flooring. There have been different thicknesses of hardwood flooring milled over the years and their wear layers are different. When we started the renovation, we discovered that the original floor is wooden. Consider the following: Average carpet cost per square foot (material and install) – $3 to $5; Average hardwood cost per square foot (material and install) – $9 to $14; There is a huge caveat to this comparison — long-term cost of maintenance and replacement. Softwood flooring is usually 3/4-inch to 1 1/4-inch thick and not tongue-and-groove. This designation allows us to offer you a renowned Shaw Star Assurance warranty program, a broad collection of Shaw flooring products including carpeting, laminate, and hardwood flooring, and a full team of associates ready to offer specialized expertise to your project. When we moved into our 1960s-era house, I was glad to know that hardwood floors were hiding under the carpet. Well, don’t give up hope yet. Jamie Lupresto of Diamond Flooring of Elizabethtown, Ky., says there's an excellent chance you'll be able to accommodate your client. But the carpet was new and our kids are still toddlers so it makes sense to just keep the carpet. Laminate flooring, a relatively new type of material, is very thin and made up of a dense fiberboard material. We found a few sneaky staples after the fact, but you get the idea. Now we want to remove the carpet but unsure if the hardwood is still good or not. Consult your state health department or local building department for information on lead paint and how to hire a company to remove it. Whether you do it yourself or bring on a mold remediation specialist, the only way to get one of the firmest of signs of mold under hardwood floors is to look under the floorboards. I’ve redone several hardwood floors, including one time removing carpet and redoing the beautiful wood floors underneath. You should be able to get a good glimpse by untucking it from a floor board in the corner of the room or closet. If the room is carpeted, tear the carpeting and padding away from tack boards. A good sign that that the carpet IS over existing hardwood that matches the wood in the dining room, would be a height difference between the two floors at that threshold. Carpet, Padding, Strips, Staples, Nails, Glue. To determine what kind of floor lies beneath your feet, you'll need to do a little detective work. However, not everybody would love to take the additional hassle of cost. Even if you are able to find the exact material from the same manufacturer, your existing floor will show signs of age. I like how you pointed out that you’ll have to rent a drum sander and get 3 different types of sandpaper. Looking that the photos, it seems to be in good condition, enough that you can sand it yourself. It’s exposed and appears to be stained…. To add visual interest to your floor, engineered hardwood comes in a variety of surface effects such as hand scraped for a time worn appearance, distressed for a slightly rustic appearance, or wire-brushed. If the carpet is over the same flooring that's in there, the carpet should be ~3/4" higher than the wood floor in the dining room. In order to make this certain, remove the rug from its spot. To remove the carpet pad residue from the hardwood floor surface follow the below-given steps: Prepare Cleaning Mixture: The users need to prepare a cleaning solution by combining the warm water, natural cleaner, and essential oil. Looking closer (click on the photo to enlarge it), you’ll see that the tile is large (about 1 foot by 2 feet) and made of marble; both features require a stiffer floor than most homes have. If you already have hardwood flooring in some areas of your home and are looking to add more, trying to match the two surfaces is next to impossible. Luckily, hardwood floors don’t hold on to these particles. If you have carpet on top of your hardwood floor, remove the carpet and padding right away. JulieBlanner.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. If you found gorgeous planks of hardwood under old flooring during a remodel or renovation, this can add value to your home and more. Make sure you find all of the areas so you can address the issue fully. Chances are it’s completely salvageable – especially if you’re willing to sand and stain! You can also try pulling up one of your floor vents. These hardwoods were hiding under carpet for nearly 50 years. Between ceiling joists, you may be able to catch a glimpse. Peek inside the opening to look at the type of wood that lies in the gap. Hardwood floors are known for their beauty and durability, increasing the overall value of a home by as much as 6 to 11 percent, according to some surveys. You certainly can’t tear apart every house your realtor takes you to. How Do You Remove Carpet Pad Residue? You might think you have hardwood beneath your carpet, but you need to be sure of it. No matter how careful you are with your hardwood floors, however, damage may be inevitable. Any time you sit down on a sofa or chair that's right atop hardwood floors, the piece will shift ever so slightly, and the legs will mark the floor. Congratulations!! Lift up part of the carpeting or linoleum in an inconspicuous corner to inspect the wood. And, then, be sure to remove tack strips as these are very sharp and can hurt you if your (or one of your kids or pets) steps on them. If you didn’t find any, you may like reading about the hardwood floors we had custom made for the Colonial! Hardwood floors are commonly 3/4-inch thick, tongue-and-groove boards. I think when it comes to refinishing our own floors, we’ll want to hire an experienced professional. To get rid of these stomach-churning particles, you’ll need to vacuum. This is how to handle them. When it's done … You always want to try and choose a floor that is roughly the same thickness as whatever is around it so you don’t have a bunch of different height floors to try and dress up later. Start at an edge of the room and pry up hardwood boards or similar material. This is the area that tends to get moldy and smelly first. I personally do not recommend laminate flooring for anything except a basement. We weren’t so lucky in our new home, just finding poorly installed parquet in the office, however, I’m happy that we at least have a room with hardwood for now! Have you ever wished you had hardwood floors throughout your home, but know that a new hardwood floor installation is out of your budget? Thank you! Again, tuck your fingers underneath to see if the wood continues or not before removing the carpet. If it doesn’t have a floor vent, go to the basement & look up.

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