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So Long Carpet

June 9th, 2014

We’ve been wanting to get rid of the living room carpet since we moved in. Carpet isn’t among my favorite things, I dislike that it can’t be cleaned. And by cleaned, I mean scrubbed and mopped. I suppose you can get a carpet cleaner, but that doesn’t get all the stuff out that falls down below the padding. Even though we wanted to get rid of the carpet, it wasn’t on the to-do list until later.
so long carpet 1
We woke up yesterday to find that Lucy had gotten sick sometime in the night. The carpet bore the brunt of it. Thus, the carpet was ripped out, yesterday.
so long carpet 2
This is exactly why I don’t like carpet, when we pulled up the padding this is what was underneath. It makes me cough just thinking about it. No doubt getting rid of this carpet will help a little with the dust problem here in this house. Underneath there is subfloor that has been sanded, stained and sealed. It’s actually much better than the carpet, and better than what we thought we’d find underneath. We’re still undecided as to what to do for flooring in here, most likely wood, but we may just leave the floor as is for a while.

What’s your favorite floor covering?

16 Comments to “So Long Carpet”
  1. Marina on June 9, 2014 at 5:10 am

    Poor Lucy, but good for you for ripping it out. Sometimes one needs a nudge, often I have started a delayed spring clean just because the dogs nudge me to!
    My favorite is wood almost everywhere and I would love to have this not too expensive Italian industrial 12 x 12 tile that looks like a pale grey/blond stone in the kitchen again, we had it in a kitchen in a past house.
    I hope Lucy is fine now!

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  2. Joan on June 9, 2014 at 6:26 am

    Wood for sure. Pine makes a nice floor with a warm character for little cost (or almost no cost if you cut your own and just have it milled). It gets scratched and worn easily though – not great for a room that gets a lot of use, especially by dogs. If you put some throw rugs down in heavily trafficked areas it is better. My parents have had the same pine floor for over 50 years (in their living room no less), and you can see where people generally walk but it is still good. We put pine down in much of our house but the most heavily trafficked areas have more durable woods.

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  3. Bettina on June 9, 2014 at 6:54 am

    Living in Southern Spain, I prefer glazed Terracotta Tile…It is easy to clean and since it has a slightly rough surface it is non skid for the dogs. In winter, I roll out rugs in front of beds and the sofa to keep feet nice and cozy.

    Wood flooring would be my second choice.

    Reply to Bettina's comment

  4. Jennifer Fisk on June 9, 2014 at 7:02 am

    Sometimes we just need an impetus to get a project started. I had been thinking of doing something different than the existing carpet in my bedroom for a while but it wasn’t a priority until my GSD whelped a litter. I think there was a little subconscious activity going on. The carpet cleaning company said it had to go. When I ripped it up, I was appalled at the amount of dirt that had sifted down through to the sub floor. After all, this wasn’t exactly a high traffic area. I swore at that point I would never replace any carpet in my home with carpet. I had prefinished hard wood installed which isn’t the best choice as it doesn’t hold up. In the future, I’d go with raw wood and finish it.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  5. Laura @ Raise Your Garden on June 9, 2014 at 7:49 am

    I love wood for its warmth and looks….so natural and homey.

    I love tile just in the kitchen because it’s so easy to clean when I drop a pan of brownies or jar of spagetti sauce.

    Reply to Laura @ Raise Your Garden's comment

  6. Jodiana on June 9, 2014 at 7:56 am

    There was carpet in the kitchen, but my rescue dog decided she was not fond of it, unfortunatly the linoleum much better. I have oak flooring in the rest of my house. The only place it is a problem was on the stairs(too slippery) I bought 100% cotton stair treads w/ non-skid bottoms and they are awesome. Everything can be washed easily.

    Reply to Jodiana's comment

  7. B.Y.S. on June 9, 2014 at 8:16 am

    We haven’t had carpet in our basement for 15 years and we haven’t had carpet upstairs for 11 years. We never had carpet here.

    Amy

    Reply to B.Y.S.'s comment

  8. Misti on June 9, 2014 at 8:24 am

    The only thing about carpet is that it makes it feel that once you vaccum it is ‘clean’…I know it shows signs of age and dirt, but I really hate mopping and having to sweep up after the cats. The only carpet I have my house is in our closets, otherwise it is either some version of tile, linoleum, or wood.

    That said, that is really gross what you found under the carpet! I hate to think about that.

    Reply to Misti's comment

  9. amy on June 9, 2014 at 8:48 am

    Wood…..which is the only type of flooring that we have except for the conservatory which is concrete. I have pretty significant allergies….so I have to have surfaces that can be wiped clean pretty frequently.. I’m with Misti what was under there was pretty awful…..I have always suspected even after sweeping carpet….that it was never truly clean. Good for you and Brian!

    Reply to amy's comment

  10. Songbirdtiff on June 9, 2014 at 10:01 am

    You got lucky with a decent floor under your carpet. We did the same thing here. With so many animals, carpet just isn’t sanitary in my house. We pulled up the carpet shortly after we moved and were fortunate to find the original wood floors in decent shape. Some day we should sand and re-seal the floors, but for now they’re better than carpet!

    Reply to Songbirdtiff's comment

  11. Nebraska Dave on June 9, 2014 at 10:21 am

    Susy, my floor of choice would be hard wood floors. The house I currently live in had carpet through out the house when we bought it. Being a 20 year old house the carpet was a little worn and we decided to replace it. Imagine our surprise when we ripped up the carpet and found practically new hard wood floors under all the carpet. In the computer room vinyl title made a debut when it was removed. Why any one would cover up beautiful hard wood floors with ugly green carpet is beyond me but then 1960s was a different age of making decisions, wasn’t it. Wait you guys probably weren’t even born yet, huh. The basement had that same green carpet until we had a water leak and I ripped it out. Concrete floor was under that carpet and remains that way to this day. Basements, in my humble opinion, are not to be finished but are to stay semi usable with concrete or title floor covering. Water always runs down hill. It’s a disaster waiting to happen and usually does. The living room has a area rug in the traffic area which can be quickly rolled up to clean under it. I’ll never have carpet in a house again.

    Have a great carpet less day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  12. Caroline on June 9, 2014 at 10:49 am

    What can I say? I love carpet.
    When we bought our house in 2009 (house built in 1958) we had original hardwood floors. They were pretty beat up in places and I ended up getting a pretty wicked sliver. Add in the dust and hairballs that float around and never seemed to get in the dustpan, plus we were about to have another baby, we opted for carpet. There are times I wish we had hardwood or laminate imitation for the look, but come winter, my feet thank me for the carpet.

    Reply to Caroline's comment

  13. Mrs. H on June 9, 2014 at 10:55 am

    tile or linoleum for the bathroom and kitchen…wood for all the other rooms

    Reply to Mrs. H's comment

  14. Annie on June 9, 2014 at 11:32 am

    After installing carpet for years in my younger days (my father sold carpet), I can assure you what you found under yours is under everybody else’s that has had carpet down for more than a year. I’ve seen many a lady of a very well kept house almost faint when we pulled up her old carpet, because of what she saw and thought her carpet was clean.
    My favorite flooring is real cork. I put it in my pantry and will go through the rest of the kitchen. Feels so good to walk on barefoot. It has many advantages but not sure how it would hold up to large dogs. Have slate in the bath and really like that too.

    Reply to Annie's comment

  15. Lindsey @HalfDimeHomestead on June 10, 2014 at 5:36 pm

    Wide plank pine floors. Sanded, sealed, and shiny. I’ve never had them and am now stuck with the most terrible of carpets in OUR ENTIRE HOUSE but dream of one day having wide plant pine floors.

    Carpet is so grody! And add a pug to the mix and it’s grody filled with hair! I just vacuum all the time and feel like I never get it clean…

    Good luck deciding on a flooring scheme – that should be fun.

    Reply to Lindsey @HalfDimeHomestead's comment

  16. Bethany on June 11, 2014 at 7:50 am

    When I bought my last house, it had old, grungy carpet throughout the whole place. Considering my allergies, i decided right away that I needed to pull it out, but I really didn’t have the extra money for new flooring. Instead of replacing the flooring with wood floors immediately, I painted the floors and sealed them. I have to admit, I never got around to replacing the flooring before I moved.

    Reply to Bethany's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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