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…to our carpet! We began the removal of our NASTY, UGLY, BROWN carpet this week.

I’ve been warned that what you find under the carpet is often disturbing. And dirty.

You ain’t kiddin’.

While flooring shopping this past weekend, my Dad and I decided the craft room would be a good place to start to see if we really can handle the installation of the laminate flooring ourselves. So on Monday evening Scott and I put on some socks (shoes are even better, but some kind of protection to prevent a staple in the foot is always a good idea, not to mention how GROSS it is once you start disturbing old carpet) and began cutting away. Our newly purchased utility knives did the trick and made quick work of removing both the carpet and padding layers.

Then I began my first sneezing fit of the project. Seen in this flash photo, the underlying carpet padding is where you’ll start kicking up dust and dirt. If you are going to try this yourself, my recommendation is to gently pull at the padding to get it detached from the staples holding it in place. Then, fold each corner in to the center until it is small enough to fit into a trash bag.
Rather than simply yanking the padding off the floor, this method helps to limit the amount of dirt tossed into the air (and then into your lungs). If this had been a bigger demo evening, I would have worn a mask (which will definitely happen when we go Freddy Kruger on the downstairs carpet).

Ta-da! In about fifteen minutes, we’ve got one less room covered in 70s-style carpet. I’m giving good ol’ Craigslist a shot to see if anyone would like to take it off our hands before carrying it to the dump. I’ve heard that there are many creative uses for it in an outdoor setting:  preventing soil erosion on sloping areas, suppressing weeds in a garden, or even insulation under a compost heap. Even if there are no takers, at least I gave green a try, right?

Up next:  removing the staples and carpet tack strips. Posting coming soon.

Hey there! I'm Sarah. My favorite things: 1) tearing my house apart and 2) putting it back together again. I occasionally talk about other things, like life and food and travel, but it's mostly my obsession with DIY and power tools that you'll find here!

Got a DIY question? Tag me on Instagram @uglyducklingDIY or use the hashtag #uglyducklinghouse to show off your projects!

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One Comment

  1. Exciting! Doesn't it feel good to get that nasty carpet outta there? I was ecstatic as soon as we started ripping ours out!

    ~Chelsea

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