How to replace carpet with hardwood floor? A step-by-step guide to removal and installation.
Hello there!!
I’m starting a new blog “how to” series and I couldn’t be more excited kickstarting it with this post on how to replace carpet with hardwood flooring!
Replacing carpet with hardwood is one of the most popular and immediate updates that buyers embark on right after the Closing. It is a bang for buck home improvement project, second only to painting.
It makes sense especially if one was buying an older home, for reasons such as existing carpets being worn or torn… or for the simple fact that most people don’t like the idea of inheriting other people’s dead skin cells.
I am one of such people, and if you’d read my post about moving to Littleton in Aug 2021 and how I’d bought my house at $100,000 below asking, well, I mentally took $20,000 off the value of the house simply because the upper level was entirely with old and stained carpets. Pics to follow.
Ripping out carpets was the first thing we did; so you see, I’ve been wanting to launch this “how-to” series for about a year now, but I knew I had to wait to collect sufficient content before doing so.
Thus like a patient owl, I waited.
My husband and I bought our house in Littleton on 27 Aug, 2021. Celebrating our one year home anniversary with gratitude and the launch of this new series!
I hope you like it!
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 1: Remove Carpets
Step one is to remove carpets.
Yes no s**t Sherlock, but I did say this was going to be a step-by-step guide so I’m not supposed to skip steps, right?!
Here are photos of our bedroom in its original state.
Beige carpets with stains. Wonderful.
Ripping them out requires no special skill set whatsoever, so relax - you got this!
You could honestly do it with brute force, sheer will, and a dash of logic (start with the corners, wear your N95 mask)… or you could choose to be a little more sophisticated and refer to this neat video from The Home Depot:
Me?
Oh I simply bossed my husband to do it. My husband in turn asked his boss if he could come over to lend a hand. Yes really.
In the process, if you happen to damage the baseboard (the white trim on the wall that runs perpendicular to the carpets) aka skirting board/skirting/wainscoting/mopboard/floor molding/base molding, do not fret - they could be disposed along with the carpets and replaced with fresh ones for an elevated look.
I won’t be writing about adding hardwood while preserving existing baseboard, but it is possible and you could search it up. :)
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 2: Remove underlying (unwanted) flooring to reveal subfloors
You’d want to check if the carpets were laid above another material, and if that too needed removing. In some circumstances you could leave it on and have your hardwood floors installed over it. Best to consult your flooring contractor; considerations for this would be whether or not that material is in good condition and could withstand the process of hardwood installation, what the resulting level of flooring would be with two materials etc.
In our hallway and other bedroom, we found age-old parquet flooring that needed to go, so once again my husband set about chipping away.
We had some interesting and gross finds behind the baseboards.
Our parquet flooring was stuck onto floorboards with glue that couldn’t be entirely removed, but that was ok.
We did lots of area vacuuming with a commercial vacuum to make sure the floors were prepped before installation.
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 3: Construct new walls or structures
If your plan is to simply remove the carpet and have hardwood in the exact surface area, you could skip this section and move on to Step 4.
However, if you would like to construct new walls or structures, now is the perfect time to do so.
When I first saw our home I knew immediately that it wasn’t selling at its original asking price because the closet in the primary bedroom was simply too small for the needs of today’s buyers. I knew the one move that would unlock instant equity: expand the closet.
Pro tip: Don’t just stretch your arms and say “this much” for length and width. Mark it out with tape.
We used green tape to mark out the perimeters and even included a 6” buffer for the thickness of walls. Red tape to mark out area for hangers.
We deliberately left enough room on the right of closet for additional functionality - office and future nursery.
Thereafter came the next steps of:
1. Demolition and framing
2. Add dry walls
Exposed walls and ceilings would have to be insulated, of course. Here, we used fiberglass insulation (R-19 for walls and a higher R-Value for the ceiling). You could read about R-Value recommendations here.
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 4: Fill gaps with joint compound/drywall mud
If you’ve got new drywall sheets there’d be a fiberglass mesh or drywall tape that goes over the seam before joint compound/mud gets laid over.
If you’d ripped off the baseboard like I did, scrap the surface and fill in dents and dings.
I’m not a fan of decorative plaster, but I appreciated that our plaster guy paid attention to match the existing ceiling pattern.
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 5: Paint
Paint! My favorite part! 🙌
Well, you could technically paint at any point of the renovation process; it’s just easier to paint now than to have hardwood installed and worry about paint splatters.
Behold, the transformation!
Excuse my dark picture; we were in the middle of electrical work and didn’t have working lights.
We have Sherwin Williams’ Snowbound for walls and Carbonized for trims and doors.
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 6: Lay Hardwood Underlayment
We got the Eco Ultra Quiet Premium Acoustical Underlayment from Floor & Decor.
My husband insisted on getting the most sound reducing underlayment because I’m a loud walker. 😬
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 7: Install Hardwood Floors
I knew immediately what hardwood to get - the same as that of my listing at 44 Logan Ave in Medford.
White Oak!
Specifically RIVERS EDGE WHITE OAK SMOOTH SOLID HARDWOOD from Floor & Decor.
Shoutout to Floor & Decor by the way, they truly have the best selection of flooring. And not only that, you know how in certain shops (*cough* Home Depot and Lowe’s) you get to see only a small display and thus are unsure how the wood would look like over a larger surface?
At Floor & Decor, they’ve made it a point to display large panels of wood. LARGE, like 80” X 50” or something. You could see how patterns and shades run over a larger surface, AND for a $5 deposit, grab a sample to bring home. Lovely!
3/4 inches solid white oak hardwood on the left; staples showing from the lower level on the right.
You don’t just lay hardwood over the underlayment and pray that it doesn’t move; each piece has to be manually stapled to the subfloor. There’s a machine that slides along the piece and staples it at an angle.
Et voilà!
How to replace carpet with hardwood floor Step 8: Install baseboard Trim
Hardwood floors are not installed flushed to walls- there needs to be a gap between flooring and wall to allow for heat expansion.
That gap is hidden by the baseboard trim.
In our case, we wanted as much vertical space on the wall as possible so instead of a traditional rectangular baseboard, we opted for quarter rounds.
final Look: Office area
So! This is me, guys!
I love monochromatic black and white and have been told that as a person, I’m like that too. And if you haven’t already guessed from my website, I love purple 💜!
I’m a late comer when it comes to the plant game, but as of the time of writing, my sansevieria and croton are alive and well.
