removing carpet over hardwoods

[Unregistered-Andrew_in_Seattle]

Hi,

My wife and I are moving into our new old house this weekend and want to rip out the old carpet and expose the hardwoods underneath. My question is when I peeled back the carpet and carpet pad, it looked like there was a white plywood subfloor underneath. I’m worried that there might not be hardwoods underneath at all!

Our neighbor has the exact same house as us, only a reverse floorplan. It was built in 1926. My question is: is it common to install a subfloor over hardwoods before carpeting? Is it possible the hardwoods are underneath this additional layer of plywood?

Also, is it common to tear out hardwood flooring before installing carpet?

I’m fairly sure the house originally did have hardwood floors, I’m just wondering where they went!

[carl21l]

It is possible there was plywood applied over hardwood. if you have any floor registers, remove one of them and check to see what is under the plywood. another option is to remove a piece of the plywood itself to check under it.

JMHO

Carl

[Author]

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