Under the carpet--what is it?

10 years ago

Hi anyone/everyone!

We have a 100-year-old house that currently has carpet, which we plan on replacing with hardwoods. We've pulled up the carpet in several corners to see what we're workin' with as we'd love to refinish. In the living room, it appears there's some beat-up dark hardwoods (not sure if salvageable, but that'd be nice!). The front bedroom has this shiny, smooth, flat, black material under the padding. Is this tar? Subflooring? Rosin paper? Weird vinyl flooring? The yellow edge seemed like the same height/texture/etc. That leveling goop? Google has left us more confused, and we truly don't know what we're looking for. Obviously we plan to eventually call a professional for an assessment and quote, but in the meantime--SO CURIOUS. Any help or ideas are appreciated! :)

This post was edited by littlegreenhaus on Mon, Oct 7, 13 at 22:41

Comments (5)

glennsfc
10 years ago
My best guess? If this is not in tile format (squares) then it might be genuine linoleum. If tile format, then likely it is asphalt tile with yellow feature strip.
weedyacres
10 years ago
Yeah, looks like some sort of vinyl/linoleum. If you want hardwood, you'll need to pry it all up and scrape/steam/chemically remove the adhesive. Link below shows some of the fun you may be in for if you proceed.....

Here is a link that might be useful: cleaning old vinyl/linoleum off hardwoods
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littlegreenhaus
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks, guys! That certainly looks like some fun indeed... slow, painstaking fun.
User
10 years ago
If I could pull my carpet back and find that, the carpet would be out of here and that linoleum shined up! You have it and don't want it; I don't have it and wish I did. Some things in life just aren't fair.
Before I went to the work of taking it up I would lay new subfloor over it being as careful as possible. Maybe someone in the future would love to find it waiting for them.
momfromthenorth
10 years ago
Make sure it doesn't have asbestos in it before you start doing whatever!