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Our Home: A Flooring Surprise

Well, this was an interesting turn of events, to say the least!

When we first moved into the house, we quickly realized that the carpet in the back room/the room that will be my office was looking pretty nasty (the pictures are a bit light: the dark spots on the carpet were very distinct in person and a deep cleaning wasn’t going to help alleviate it).

There was no way we were keeping it, so the hunt for acceptable new floor began. The winner ended up being a bamboo flooring, since it is supposed to be extremely durable. The plan was to install the bamboo floor, along with new 4.25 inch baseboards around the room. First thing’s first: it was time to paint the room before the new floor was installed. Since the carpet and baseboards were going to be ripped out, we didn’t have to lay a drop cloth or worry about being careful around the baseboards. I selected Gossamer Blue by Benjamin Moore for the wall color. It is such a happy blue/green hue, and it pops off the wall really well without darkening up the space too much.

After the paint was on the walls, Justin, my dad, and I thought it might be interesting to pull up a corner of the carpet to see what was below it, since it was going to be pulled up the next day anyway. Well, that’s when we found a little surprise.

Oh boy. When we pulled up that carpet we discovered hardwood floor beneath it. Ah! The previous owners carpeted OVER hardwood floors?!?!?! I know it was the thing to do years back, but we were thrown for a loop. It was pretty much like Christmas had come early as we began ripping back the carpet and carpet pad to reveal the floor underneath.

In the end, there was a large water damaged piece of floor in the office, so the decision was made to install the new floor as scheduled. There was talk of having it sanded/refinished, but the cost to do that would almost have been as much as just laying a new floor, so it didn’t seem like that great of an idea for this room.

However, our office floor discovery got us thinking…there are two other rooms in the house with carpet – the mater bedroom and the 2nd bedroom. Could it be, we thought??? My mom and I quickly ran into each bedroom and carefully pulled up a corner of the carpet in the closets. Annnnd guess what? Hardwood floors, yet again! Even though carpet is comfortable, I would love to have a house with all hard floors with area rugs – I like that I could switch things up with decor with new rugs, and prefer to clean hard floors to carpets in general. Personal choice!

As badly as I wanted to immediately pull up the carpets in both rooms, I had to resist for the time being. We’ll have to wait until we are prepared to redo the floors before we pull back any more carpet. We are pretty sure that there will be water damage in the 2nd bedroom, based on the fact that there was some in the office (which is right next to that room). However, the master bedroom is at the other end of the house, so mayyyybe if we are lucky the master bedroom will be in good condition with no damage! In the meantime, I’m brainstorming what we’d do with the water damaged floors if we do find them. I’ve seen people sand and paint their wood floors when there is some water damage…so perhaps we would take a stab at that in the 2nd bedroom! For now though…we live with the carpet.

In the end, I just can’t believe how random it was that we found hardwood floors beneath the carpet in our house! I’ve heard of it happening to other people before, but hadn’t even considered it a possibility until we actually started pulling back the carpets!

Do you prefer hard floors or carpet in your home?

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  • We rented an industrial grade belt sander from a local place and sanded down our water damaged floors (the previous owner’s solution had been to paint them pastel yellow – ew). Then, I stained and resealed them — they look great! I recommend it if you want to preserve what you’ve got there. Or there’s my solution in our master bedroom: put a rug over the water damaged part. LOL.

    • That’s kind of what we’ve been thinking about for the 2nd bedroom, at least! I’ve seen a lot of people sand down and paint their floors, and I kind of like that idea for the spare bedroom when I get around to picking out the decor and such…

  • Oh wow Katie! I know you are having a hard time resisting pulling up the other carpet. Could you imagine if it is in perfect condition! You will love the bamboo flooring. I had it in my old condo. I can’t wait until I come home and get to see the house for myself!!

    • I hear you – we didn’t even consider it until we started pulling up the carpet!

      Thankfully, the carpet in the two bedrooms is actually pretty new and in good condition…it was just the back room that had a bunch of stains. I’m weird – if it is a stain I make myself I can live with it…it is the unknown origin of the stains that freaks me out a bit! Haha…there are some strange things in this house. 3 doors have holds in them that are about fist-sized…that have been patched poorly. I seriously think someone punched in multiple doors…

  • What a wonderful surprise! Too bad about the water spots though. 🙁

    I remember when my family first moved into my parents’ house, we pulled out the old ugly carpeting from the living room to reveal beautiful oak floors underneath. They were in such good condition that even our contractor refused to touch them. It still boggles my mind why anyone would cover up beautiful hardwood floors!

    • Isn’t that crazy? How fortunate for your parents that those floors were underneath! I don’t think I’ll be lucky with both of the other rooms…but if one of them is in good condition I’ll call it a win!

  • I don’t know if this makes me unstylish. But we bought a foreclosure a few years ago (and have since moved out) but we also discovered wood floors (THANK GOD) and got them finished and matted and had water damage and just sort of dealt with it. I don’t know. It gave the floors character, I thought. It was my first house and looking back, I would have gotten a nice carpet for the living room but hey, next time, right?

    Awesome discovery!

    • I don’t think that makes you unstylish! Our living room is currently water damaged as well…but we can’t deal with it right now so it’s just a “live with it” situation. As long as the floor isn’t buckling or something like that, I can be patient to wait for changes. One thing at a time, right?

  • That is freaking awesome! I agree – I want a house with all hardwoods (though I admit, I want laminates, I LOATHE cleaning real woods) and area rugs – no carpet! Grosses me out. Very nice find!

    • With how awesome they are making laminate nowadays, it totally makes sense. Seriously – we’ve been looking at them (have to re-do the living/dining room eventually) and there are some that you honestly can’t tell the difference between that and real wood. It’s pretty incredible. Plus, they hold up better to scratches…the pup won’t tear them up with the nails!

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