Carpeters with Staple Guns Should be Shot on Site

My parents closed on house yesterday and me and my father started ripping out the old carpets to get to the gold underneath. Beautiful oak floors, looks like it might be red oak. Doesn't even appear that there is any stain or varnish on them, they are still a little rough. Looks like they must of put them in and never did the final sanding and finish. Only problem is the wall to wall carpet in the main room had the padding stapled down. I just don't understand why someone would cover up floors like that in the first place. I'd be willing to bet they were covered with carpet since the house was built in 1951.

As far as the carpeter goes there ought to be a Law! I can understand nailing the tack strip down but they stapled the padding along the seams about every 4 inches so i have 4 holes every 4 inches in a straight line in 3 spots in the room. I must of pulled out 300 staples. We're going to see what we can do after we get them sanded, probably start with some sawdust mixed with glue and see if that works.

Edit: hmmm toothpicks was one idea Google brought up, I wonder if they have hardwood ones to match color?

Stuff Happens....

We found the same thing when we moved into our house. The seller wanted the house to move asap and that meant putting down carpet and being done with it. That carpet came up almost immediately on move in; I can't imagine life with 2 dogs. 3 kids and their friends tracking over the carpet 24/7 the past 24 years. We found that we could hide most of the staple marks under the toe board. Good luck with the refinish. Lisa

Carpet installers are not carpenters.

hophead wrote:Carpet installers are not carpenters.

or hardwood floor re-finishers

just sand seal -- the marks are ambiance!

same here, they did the same thing in our house, we ripped the carpeting out and they put hundreds of staples on the padding too!!! Nice hardwood floors under, just a quick cleaning and some Formbees or minwax.....Nice!

I am sure you know about saving the fine sawdust from the first sanding pass and mixing it with elmers, making a paste and working that paste into the multitude of small holes, or even before you sand; filling the holes with a color matched filler. Those staples sure cause some small cuts before the carpet is appropriately in a dumpster.

30 years ago many chose to cover fine wood floors with a warmer solution, wall to wall carpeting; but anyone who burns coal knows that their floors will be warm, heck, the entire structure will be warm. Wood seems to be a living part of a home, and hardwoods last forever, and like a coal boiler just need a rehab every twenty years or so. Careful with the sander, they will throw you around if you aren't paying attention.
Wait until you use the new Federally mandated "water based' finishes................................idea:

hophead wrote:Carpet installers are not carpenters.

The title reads "Carpeters". I thought it read carpenters the first couple times I glanced at it as well.

Had the same problem with my first house. A butt-ugly green carpet over beautiful wood floors. Stripped the carpet off and just cleaned up the floor a little and it looked great except for the hole near the base board. Fixing that was my next project but sold the house first.