I bet your whole house is going to feel, maybe even smell, cleaner! There was dark gray shag *throughout* a house we bought, and when we tore it up, we found beautiful oak floors with darker edging around the sides--how could anyone have wanted to cover that up?

After you get squared away, look around at Bed & Bath, or Marshall's, for floor restorers. You just wipe them on with a rag or a mop, and they really brighten up wood floors--maybe you won't need to sand & poly them--plus, with these products, you can do just a section at a time, so no need for a big furniture move or the dreadful mess sanding makes. I'd definitely try one of them before I went to sanding. You might be perfectly happy with the results!

The whole house is carpeted. Even the kitchen! That will be going, soon, to be replaced by some sort of vinyl. Much easier to clean up than wood and less deadly to glass ware than tile.

I hope to have the whole down stairs and upper hall way stripped of carpet by Spring. The bedrooms can wait.

our house in early nineties, and I swear I am still cleaning up dust from sanding of hardwood flooring we had put in. I’m joking of course, but it was such a mess! My husband put it in, but hired someone to sand it and to seal it. Think I will look up that floor restorers you talked about.

because the dust sticks to vertical surfaces as well as horizontal ones.

At one house, we hired a professional and moved out while he worked. They somehow contained the mess. If you have no choice but to sand, and if you can possibly afford it, hire somebody who will promise you a clean house after the sanding.

Youtube has a bunch of videos showing how to use the refreshers (sometimes they call them restorers). I've been very happy with the results from these products.

are from the 70's...

so that rug is almost 40-50 years old?????



make sure you wear a mask.....

Oh wait, this isn't 1972.
Good luck, get before pictures.

when we tore out 20-year old carpeting I was horrified at what was under there!

I coughed and coughed when we had old flooring and carpets removed.

Old carpet is always a plus even though messy. Glad for you, it will make you feel better physically and mentally. Plus it gives the kitties more skittle space.

The last place I lived in had no carpet, this one has it in the bedroom but it's new. I did decide what to do with my old wool blankets, I made braided rugs for area rugs and one big one to replace a 5x7 area rug that got old. Easy to make, got rid of a lot of fabric that I needed to do something with and they look great. Mikey likes to attack them and stuff things under them when he's on a tear.

I got an update from his other mom yesterday, he's been rediscovering his domain and finding he has a new feature to deal with... wild turkeys. Freak him right out which is good because he needs to learn to be in the house more now that he's nine years old. I sure do miss him already. Small as my place is, it feels so empty without him and his regular interruptions of whatever I'm doing.

Is he a cat?

He was at the last place I rented, adopted me before I even moved in. It was a converted portion of an older house and he hadn't quite figured out the separation thing.

His human, my former landlady and now friend, sold the place lest year (long story) upending both our worlds, she had horses, a dog and Mikey. She ended up homeless for a few months so I took Mikey to my new place, not rural like we were. Once in her newly built home, Mikey went to live there since he's not an indoor cat full time and I have little space with no yard to speak of and close to streets. The kicker was when Mikey, who has to go outside and watch over the home place, discovered the storm drain out at the street and would spend much of his time there and not come when called. It's freezing and with a foot+ of snow it was a very dangerous place for him so he had to go to his other home where the house is bigger, he has 8 acres to rule and can be in the house at night. He was regularly inside at night during winter but I had to convince his other mom that he needs to be in at night year round because it's pretty wild out there and he's prey for too many critters, not like our old place at all. And she has to feed him better. So that's why he's there for now. We agreed that he has two homes and he can come back in a few months when it's safe for him to be outside here.

Until then, I have to focus on other stuff that I had in the works before I brought him home last August.

Carpets are not a healthy floor covering. Had every carpet removed from our house. Respiratory problems disappeared.

It dirty and dusty and after the first day on the floor, it will NEVER be truly clean again. I am about to rip out carpeting throughout my home. Starting a total remodel...inside and out.

This house has hard wood floors in every room but the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms. They put down quality but VERY UGLY (IMHO) carpeting. My aunt had epilepsy and they wanted some padding should she fall. Even the kitchen is carpeted!!

Now, I HATE carpeting but love hard wood floors. The trouble is both getting help and the logistics of what to do with the furniture. And I procrastinated. Far too long.

It's a 'split level' house with just 1 step to the upstairs. If we get the whole downstairs and upstairs hall way taken care of in the next few months, the bedrooms can be done at a later date. The master bedroom being the priority.

I'm already looking at some nice area rugs.

My house was built in 1885 and has mostly nice hardwood floors, but whoever owned the place in the '60s or '70s covered the entire upstairs floors and the stairs themselves in nasty orange-ish gold shag carpeting. I have removed almost all of it (one room still needs to go, but that's part of a bigger project). The underlying floors are just painted planks, not finished flooring, but that's OK. I've repainted the stairway and at some point will either repaint the rest of the floors or leave them as is. I was so glad to get rid of that hideous carpeting!

back in early to mid 2000’s had a short shag put in her house-yes it was a thing for a while. Don’t remember where exactly it was in her house. She got rid of it.Said it was a bad decision. With two kids then and couple dogs and cat back then, yea I would say it was not a good combination.