Building Bensonhurst: demolition days- floor removal

As I mentioned earlier this week the floors were so filthy it was almost nauseating. My sister tried to calm my nerves by suggesting we live as we did at camp- with flip flops attached to our feet at ALL times. First I must say that we LOVE camp, so she assumed that comment would make me feel sentimental and that my use of flip flops may even be enjoyable, but while it was tolerable for a week anything beyond that just wouldn't be fun.. maybe because I was wearing flip flops in my own home! Don't you remember those sad days when the summer season was over and your parents picked you up and drove you home. Yes, you had to say goodbye to your friends, but you also got to scrub your feet!!

Anyway, we opted not to tackle the vinyl tile in the hall- we ended up figuring out that it would be more cost efficient for us to install all new, REAL hardwood floors over the vinyl than to salvage what was underneath. But we did get to pull up the lovely carpeting in two rooms- which obviously helped with the musty smell, and pulled up the vinyl in the kitchen.

Here's how it all went down..

The Living Room
So unfortunately I don't have any action shots of the lovely green shag being removed, but here are some "before" and "after" shots..

before

after

Removing the carpet in the Living Room made the biggest difference. Immediately I could start to see what I had envisioned all along- a big, open space with lots of character and even more potential. This was also the moment we discovered the first of many "short cuts" that the previous owners had taken during time in the house.. notice how the perimeter was more recently refinished? Even though I'm sure it saved lots of money I wouldn't suggest refinishing a floor around an existing area rug. I mean what if you decide its time to replace the rug?

The Office
The blue wall to wall carpeting in this room was almost as beautiful as the green shag.

Unfortunately ripping up this carpet revealed another layer of vinyl instead of the beautiful hardwood we had hoped for.

same room- picture taken after wallpaper was removed

What a lovely view in the front yard!

By the way, for those of you who are looking to try this at home.. removing carpeting isn't as easy as it appears to be in the pictures above. First of all, make sure you know what you have underneath- because it could be plywood and then you're out of luck. Also, if you haven't seen wall to wall installed before, let me just brief you on the steps- meaning you have to remove all of these as well..

1. Hammer down tack strips, which basically means these are hammered down around every inch of the perimeter of the room.

This is where a crowbar comes in handy, though this isn't an easy job. In our case it was almost like time made the strips especially brittle and they kept breaking instead of coming up cleanly.

2. Padding is installed before the carpet and believe me, it doesn't stay down by itself.. you guessed it, a million staples are used to hold it in place.

I found that a screwdriver was the easiest way to remove the staples, but it is a time intensive project because they're easy to miss.

3. Finally the carpet is cut into place and tucked around the tack strips. The strips have little spikes of them that grasp onto the lining of the carpet.

Because the carpet is the uppermost layer you can easily cut it down the middle and remove it piece by piece.

The Kitchen
The vinyl floor in this room was already peeling up from all corners so removing it took only minutes..

Another shortcut here- there were two layers of vinyl. First hint that the owner didn't believe in stripping anything, only applying and reapplying. But underneath were the same floors as in the Living Room, so that too made a huge difference.

We were really lucky to have hardwood under all of the surfaces, though we weren't entirely surprised because that is typical in most old(er) homes. We knew early on we wanted hardwood throughout because while it's great for resale, it's also what we prefer- Ben from a comfort standpoint and me in terms of design. But like I mentioned all of the vinyl floors in the hall and the bedrooms created a little bit more work than originally expected. When pricing it out we discovered that it made more sense for us to just install new boards over the vinyl towards the back of the house.

The Vestibule
We also opted to have the vestibule floors refinished to match.

Because the house isn't what I'd call big, in any sense of the word, it was important to me that the rooms flow and the best way to do that is in keeping with the same floor finish.

Refinishing the Floors
As a designer the best installation is one that is done when the client isn't there to witness the "steps" and that is exactly what we opted to do with the floors. While we are in Manhattan our floors are being finished in Minwax's Jacobean finish..