Allergy Relief?
We had been planning to take out all the carpet in the house for quite some time. After the allergist confirmed my dust allergies, I was even more committed to do it. So, back around Christmas while my wife was out of town, I ripped out all the carpet upstairs. We replaced all the carpet downstairs with hardwood a few years ago. That was pretty easy. I installed engineered hardwood as a "floating" floor and we've been satisfied with it since. Unfortunately the upstairs won't be as simple.
Hiding beneath the upstairs carpet was 3/4" thick particle board. Also, there are four large closets upstairs and, for what ever reason, the builder used plywood instead of particle board in each one. Particle board is unsuitable for use as a sub-floor under solid hardwood because it won't hold the nails. You shouldn't put a floating floor over it because it is so uneven. It also has the tendency to swell if it gets wet (as evident by the few pet "mishaps" exposed after the carpet removal). Underneath the particle board is 1" x 8" plank running diagonal to the floor joists. The floor joists run north and south under the plank.
So...I have to rip up the particle board, which isn't that difficult, but to keep things level, I also must remove the plywood from the closets. Then, in order to properly install the hardwood, I have to run it east and west (perpendicular to the floor joists). And that's the hard way because it means more cutting since the rooms are longer (north and south) than wide (east and west). To add insult to injury I also need to remove a wallpaper border and paint one of the rooms prior to installing the new floor.
The stairs were carpeted half way up. I ripped all of that off, as well. So I'll be installing eight new stairs, nine new risers and a nosing. I haven't figured out exactly how I will do the landing at the top because it will be running the wrong direction to cleanly meet up with the nosing. The other thing that is surprisingly complex is finding a prefinished 3/4" thick hardwood floor that we like. They all seem to be either too light or too dark. The one we both liked would end up costing about $8000.00 just for the wood. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
All of this because of dust and dust mites. Wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to wear a respirator 24 hours a day?
Hiding beneath the upstairs carpet was 3/4" thick particle board. Also, there are four large closets upstairs and, for what ever reason, the builder used plywood instead of particle board in each one. Particle board is unsuitable for use as a sub-floor under solid hardwood because it won't hold the nails. You shouldn't put a floating floor over it because it is so uneven. It also has the tendency to swell if it gets wet (as evident by the few pet "mishaps" exposed after the carpet removal). Underneath the particle board is 1" x 8" plank running diagonal to the floor joists. The floor joists run north and south under the plank.
So...I have to rip up the particle board, which isn't that difficult, but to keep things level, I also must remove the plywood from the closets. Then, in order to properly install the hardwood, I have to run it east and west (perpendicular to the floor joists). And that's the hard way because it means more cutting since the rooms are longer (north and south) than wide (east and west). To add insult to injury I also need to remove a wallpaper border and paint one of the rooms prior to installing the new floor.
The stairs were carpeted half way up. I ripped all of that off, as well. So I'll be installing eight new stairs, nine new risers and a nosing. I haven't figured out exactly how I will do the landing at the top because it will be running the wrong direction to cleanly meet up with the nosing. The other thing that is surprisingly complex is finding a prefinished 3/4" thick hardwood floor that we like. They all seem to be either too light or too dark. The one we both liked would end up costing about $8000.00 just for the wood. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
All of this because of dust and dust mites. Wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to wear a respirator 24 hours a day?
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