The Renovations Begin: The Study

Know what happens when you assume? Major renovation projects, that’s what happens.

The hallway and master bedroom of our new home is covered in laminate flooring. The room that’s going to be our daughter’s room is good old-fashioned hardwood flooring. Nice hardwood, too. The room that is going to be my study/workout room/library was carpeted. And I wondered why.

I asked the old owners what was under the floor of the room that is going to be my study. The old owners told me linoleum. Interesting.

I went looking through the second floor and discovered in the hall closet that, in fact, there was linoleum under the laminate floor as well, both of which ended in the closet, and underneath both of which was hardwood. Nice hardwood.

Now, I don’t want carpet in the study. I want hardwood. And with that in mind I decide that, if there’s hardwood under that linoleum, I want it.

So Sunday night, I went over to the new house and pulled up the carpet. Not a hard job at all. A pair of pliers and some elbow grease got the carpet up. Used a utility knife to cut it into strips, rolled it up, put it in a corner.

Getting up the under-padding took a little longer and if you’re going to do this wear kneepads and work gloves. Eye protection is a good idea, too. Those staples can spring out at you. Pulled up the under-pad easy enough then went over every inch of the floor looking for staples. Got them all up. Some people recommend going over the floor with a scraper to look for other staples. I used my hands – remember those work-gloves – and ran them over every inch of the floor. Got them all and swept the debris out of the way at the same time.

Next step: the tack strips. A tip from a friend of mine saved me a lot of time. Instead using one pry-bar and a hammer, use two pry-bars. Once you’ve got the first one wedge in, wedge in the next one beside it, pull up, move the first one over, and keep going. Got all the tack strips up in about five minutes. Then I stood back to survey the work.

That is the ugliest linoleum I have ever seen. Ever. And it wasn’t put down properly. And it has paint on it. Good thing it’s coming up.