Temporary Flooring Advice

8 years ago

We have lived in our home now for coming up on 2 years. The upstairs (main floor including kitchen, dining, living, master, foyer & 1.5 bath) has a combination of carpet and 16" porcelain tile.

We have been working on saving for our new flooring that will replace both the tile and carpet throughout the house,

My question surrounds a temporary solution, as we are currently 4-6 months (aiming / hoping for the 2-4 month timeframe) away from actually having the flooring installed. Our carpet in the bedroom, living and dining room is just nasty. Previous owners had a large dog(s) and there are stains all over it that no cleaning service can get out.

It is getting into late spring/summer weather here in Northern California where temps are already in the 80s, and carpet just makes things hotter. I would like to replace the carpet temporarily until we can get the new flooring put in. Question is, with what? I would like to avoid replacing it with more (cheap) carpet as a temporary solution, but is it really worth it to either live on just the subfloors (i see splinters in our future) or doing something like a good quality plywood sheet thats sealed? Or something else?

Open to suggestions - I am pretty handy and dabble in furniture making as a hobby, so DIY solutions are preferable.

Featured Answer

jhmarie

8 years ago

I had the carpet up months before my hardwood floor installer got around to my house. I vacuumed the subfloor very well and put some inexpensive area rugs down - still use the rugs:)

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Comments (7)

Bev
8 years ago
If the carpet is really that nasty, I would pull it up and get rid of it. Since you are only months away from having new flooring, I would just live with whatever is below the carpet. If it's too bad, you could always use plywood planks.
Justin thanked Bev
apple_pie_order
8 years ago
Try pricing nonwoven indoor/outdoor carpeting from a big box store: it's usually pretty cheap.
Justin thanked apple_pie_order
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Justin
Original Author
8 years ago
@Bev @apple_pie_order - thanks for the feedback - after pulling up the carpet in one corner, the subfloor looks pretty good, so we might try to see how that works and how much dust that will kick up
PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
8 years ago
What is your next option for flooring? If you are putting down a permanent floor (like more tile or nail-in-place wood) then you want that subfloor as pristine as possible.

If you are floating a floor (like cork, vinyl, laminate, engineered, etc), you can always paint/finish the plywood with something to keep splinters to a minimum.

Do NOT "finish" the subfloor if you are going to install a permanent floor!!!! Big problems await you if you put a finish on a subfloor and then try to glue/mortar something to it. Big, expensive, time consuming problems.
Justin thanked Cancork Floor Inc.
Justin
Original Author
8 years ago
@cancork floor - thanks for the feedback - underneath the carpet is a plywood subfloor that looks to be already painted, or at least primed (its white where I pull up the carpet) - the flooring that will be going down is more than likely going to be floated, either engineered hardwood or laminate, as we live in an area where temps range from 10-110* throughout the year, so we felt a floated floor would be best.

To your point about finishing the subfloor. I am leaning towards the option if, when pulling up the carpet, the subfloor is showing issues, of laying finished plywood over top of it as a temporary solution, just nailed into place, so I wouldnt be finishing the existing subfloor.
PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
8 years ago
Fair enough. Sounds like you are several steps ahead. If the subfloor is already primed, I would simply live with what is there. Area rugs in nasty spots = most amount of money you want to spend on this. New plywood = $1/sf + nails + removal + "finish". You could be looking at $2-$3/sf by the time you want to install the new floor.

If it looks in good shape, simply sand down the rough spots and throw area rugs where you will. Imagine the floor you could buy if you KEPT the $2-$3/sf in your pocket?
Justin thanked Cancork Floor Inc.