An open letter, maybe you can help.

My house is all hardwood floors, except the kitchen and bathroom (linoleum) and the 2nd bedroom, which is my office. My office has carpet. Now, when I moved in, there was carpet in the living room and going up the stairs, which I ripped out immediately after painting (leaving it down for the painting, effectively making the nasty-ass carpet a drop cloth). But the office carpet may be a problem.

The office carpet is a very short type, and I don’t think there is even a pad under it. There’s no real cushion at all to it. And it appears that every inch of it is glued down. Like, I can’t even pull up a corner of it. It is a hideous green (as all the carpet was, but the stuff I did pull up had a pad and was stapled down).

My cats have a tendency to go to the first soft surface they can find when it’s time to charf up some hairballs or cat food. Which means I have given up on having an area rug in the living room, and now I desperately want this office carpet GONE. Cleaning up cat vomit on a carpet is a royal bitch, especially when you’re doing it multiple times a week. And let’s not forget how gross all carpet smells in the hot and humid summer time. No matter how often you clean it. And especially if it’s really old.

My open letter is this: If you have ever in your life had to remove carpeting that was glued down hardcore, how best did you go about removing it? What worked wonders, what didn’t work at all? What didn’t work that “everyone” claimed would? What did work that “everyone” said would not at all? I need ideas, people. If my best option is ripping it up bit by bit with needle-nose pliers and a chisel, so be it, but if there is a more effective way, I want to know about it.

What kind of sick bastard puts carpet on nice hardwood floors anyway?!

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