A Hardwood and Carpet Oreo

Back in January Sarah and Kit started a competition to refinish their staircases, while inviting their readers to join along if they had some stairs that needed a make over. Oh how I wished that their timing had been shifted just a little bit later, because I have stairs that are in desperate need of a makeover! Aside from the gross carpet that has been worm pretty thin, it's kind of weird to have hardwood floors up and down stairs with carpet in the middle. It's like a hardwood and carpet Oreo. Well, I finally worked up the motivation to rip out that old gross carpet!

 

Ripping up carpet is actually a pretty easy job. I usually start with a pair of pliers to pinch the carpet in a corner and pull it up. Once I have a sizeable chunk free I just use my hands and pull pull pull. Since the stairway is so narrow I would pull the sides in towards the center to pop it off of the tack strips. Those are those nasty little strips of wood with tiny nails poking out of the top of them.

 

 

Once your carpet is gone there's a layer of padding. It doesn't come off quite as nicely because its easy to rip and its stapled down in a million spots. But those pliers I used to lift up the carpet work fine for removing staples.

 

 

After pealing back the padding you will instantly hate carpet! Seriously, this is the stuff that was under the padding. It's like a fine sandy dirt something or another. The bottom line is its gross! You know that feeling when your walking around your house barefoot and your floors are a little less than clean? Yeah, I had that feeling WITH SHOES ON! I could not vacuume this stuff up quick enough.

 

 

After removing the tack strips and staples this is what I was left with. Yikes!

 

 

Now, don't get too excited. I do not have one single thing to start the project of actually replacing the old carpet with beautiful wood stairs. No treads, no risers, no stair skirts! Ok, wait! I take that back, I do have everything for the landing and a Pinterest board. We plan on using some of the hardwood that we have left over and a piece of pre finished bull nose for the landing, but that's it! However, before we can get to the landing we need to make/install stair skirts. Those need to be in before we can install the bull nose, which is where I plan on starting the wood flooring for the landing. So who knows when this will happen, we still have the majority of our houses' exterior to paint (we've been slacking for the last 3 weeks), but there's no stopping now!

 

Do you have a project you're so desperate to start that you demo before you have your reno plan put together? Are you a carpet lover or hater? Wanna come help me finish painting my house?

 

Nikki Kelly