Replacing the wall-to-wall carpeting in the upstairs hallway with laminate
flooring. The carpet is coming up a bit easier than expected, which is
good. Tedious, but constructively destructive. I'm cutting the removed
carpeting into pieces I can use as "throw rugs" and/or "runners" on the
original wood floor underneath. Not so good, as there was no way to know
until removing the carpet and padding, the floor has some 'issues.' The
original wood floor has places which have been...er..."patched," and not
well done.
There are places where the boards are not all at the same height. I've also
found (so far), one cracked board, and one which looks like it's
twisted/warped. Because of this, I'm guessing (because I have no way of
knowing) that there must have been some water damage at some point in the
past. Whatever the cause, the result will have to be repaired/replaced
before I can get the laminate down. Even after dealing with the oddball
floor boards, I'll probably have to put down a layer of luan just to have a
smooth surface. Yes, I know that I could just replace all the floor board
with 3/4 inch plywood and be done with it. I guess I'm just trying not to
have to do that since that's a bit beyond my skills. But I really won't
know for sure, until I get the rest of the carpet and padding up (guessing
90% up) to really see what's underneath the whole thing.
One funny/strange thing...there is newspaper stuck to the floor boards. It
looks like it was intentionally done, as the sheets are quite flat and
obviously laid out that way. I found bits of old linoleum near the walls,
so at one time there was a linoleum floor; and it appears that the newspaper
was used as the underlayment. Anyone ever hear of this before, or run
across it before? I know about using masonite under linoleum way back when,
but...newspaper? Oh, and I found a date on one sheet - May 21, 1961.
Your experience of floor changing seems to be good and it helped me change my view and got to know about floor sander.
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