Pulling Up Layers to Save the Hardwood
29 photos · flooring
Almost every floor in the house had something hiding under it — Pergo over hardwood, vinyl over hardwood, carpet over tar paper. I went room by room ripping out underlayment and adhesive to figure out what was salvageable. The hardwood was good in most of it, so I sanded and refinished where I could and laid LVP in the kitchen and basement where the original wasn't worth saving.
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Before Brown carpet still down, walls already painted. Carpet was the next thing to go.
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Before Pulled the carpet — original hardwood underneath in decent shape.
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During Closet floor stripped down to tack strips and padding.
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During Pulling the carpet pad up around the cast iron radiator without scratching anything.
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During Tar paper and old adhesive on the hardwood. That all has to come off before the sander runs.
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During Pergo planks and underlayment lifting to expose original hardwood. Some idiot floated laminate over real wood.
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During Old vinyl tile coming up next to the radiator. Slow work with a scraper.
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During Vinyl tile and black mastic getting scraped off the wood floor. Ventilation matters here.
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During Found old vinyl under the newer marble-look flooring. Layer cake.
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During Vinyl partly off in the kitchen entryway showing subfloor and original hardwood underneath.
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During Linoleum and subfloor layers coming up in a doorway during the kitchen floor demo.
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During Vinyl peeled back to expose the subfloor. Decided it all had to go.
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During Kitchen floor stripped down past the radiator. Subfloor was patched in spots — sister joists later.
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During Subfloor open with the circular saw out. Cutting it back to clean joists.
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Ryobi cordless saw with a fine-tooth blade — cleaner cuts in old subfloor.
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During Pulling old subfloor layers with the saw and a pry bar.
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During More underlayment coming up. Three different glues on this one section.
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During Cutting damaged plywood out so I could patch it back in with new sheets.
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During Cutting a clean patch in the doorway transition so the LVP would sit flat.
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During Adhesive scraped, debris bagged, getting ready for new underlayment.
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During Cast iron radiator left in place — I worked around it instead of disconnecting steam lines.
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During Doorway transition exposed. You can see the subfloor change between rooms.
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During Dining room with everything torn up. About a quarter of the house was open at once.
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During Sister joists going in next to the old framing where there was water damage from a long-fixed leak.
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During Hardwood prepped, shop vac out, new flooring stacked and ready.
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During Underlayment down in a closet before the laminate planks went in over the original wood.
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During Trim painted, doorway open, hardwood waiting on the sander.
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During Looking from the kitchen back to the hallway with the subfloor open.
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After Refinished hardwood under the vaulted ceiling. Worth the scraping.
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