"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
. net...

"Jhudson" wrote in message
k.net...
My husband and I just finished "uncovering" our beautiful hardwood
floors that lived in secret under ugly carpet for the past 30 years
before we moved into our house. I can't believe people would prefer an
ugly shag to that gorgeous oak.


It was the style for many years. When I bought my first house in 1966, it
had carpeting. After a few months, we replaced with wall to wall also.
That was the way it was done. Later, in the mid 70's, we did a kitchen &
dining room remodel and removed the carpeting from the dining room and
refinished the floor. At the time, we were considered mavericks doing
something so drastic. We sold the house with the rest of it still
carpeted.
Rueful chuckle- Yeah, I saw the same syndrome first hand. When my father put
me on broom duty in his construction company in that era, even entry-level
cookie cutters got an ocean of Bruce prefinish plank hardwood, basically
everything except kitchen and bathrooms. W/W was considered a luxury back
then, and usually equal or higher in cost to hardwood, since synthetic
carpets were just coming out. A lot of it was immdeiately carpeted over.
Sigh- all that prime hardwood, now worth a fortune, lost forever. (No
practical way I've ever found to salvage tongue-nailed strip put down with
cut nails and an impact tool.)

This 1960 cookie cutter I bought last year, while lower on the food chain
than the places my father built, still has hardwood in the original
footprint. The 3 bedrooms are now exposed again, 2 of the having been badly
DIY refinished by the previous owner, to repair what 40 years of carpet does
do hardwood. If the living room and hall hadn't had brand new W/W in them, I
probably would have ripped that out and gotten a pro refinisher in here
before I moved in. If I'm still here in 5-7 years when that carpet is shot,
I'll have to ponder the issue again, in spite of what a PITA refinishing
occupied space is. (I'd basically have to empty the rest of the house into
the kitchen/addition/garage, and plastic it off.)

The half-ass 1978 addition on the back, sadly, is another matter- cheap
berber over OSB. That, I should have replaced with something before I moved
in.

aem sends....