wrote:

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:28:17 GMT, Max wrote:


Please allow me to share a few universal, immutable Truths about the
wood flooring found in older homes.

When you hear the words "... and there's a wood floor under the carpet,"
what you should think is: " ... and the abused damaged ruined remnant of
a once-beautiful tongue and groove plainsawn oak floor lie beneath this
urine-stained berber."

Carpets are generally put on top of wood floors for a reason, and in my
experience -- this 50's ranch being my third, after two early 1890's
Vic's -- those reasons have a lot more to do with concealing/cheaply
covering up damage than it does with comfort, sound or any other very
plausible explanation.



Sorry to hear of your troubles, but those are not immutable truths. I
bought a 1950's ranch in 1995 from the original owners. It had wall to
wall carpet throughout, including inside all the closets. The carpet
was ancient and awful. Underneath it was a brand new 1952 oak floor
that had never been walked on other than to install the carpet. Back
in 1952, the houses in my neighborhood were built with oak floors as
standard, and wall to wall carpet as an extra cost option. If you went
for the carpet, they put it OVER the oak floor. When we had our
closing, we went straight over to the house and ripped up all of that
nasty carpet the same day. The floor underneath was in pristine
condition, and did not even need to be waxed. Not a mark on it.

Barney

SAme experience for me, too... I bought a house built in 1954 from the
original owner... They had the carpet put down when the house was new,
and the original oak floor had never seen a day of wear. Over the
course of their ownership, they only had 1 dog, and it stayed outside,
so no pet stains to soak through and ruin the floor underneath.

The only thing I had to do was to fill in the few holes left by the
carpet tack strips with some colored wood filler, and you never know
that there was ever carpet on the floor. Looks like a brand new floor.