Due to a little rejigging of my schedule, I was left with a full day free to do DIY! Yay!
I started with sanding the polyfilla on ALL the walls. Add 2 lbs of arm and shoulder muscle....
Wipe down ALL the walls. Add a further 2 lbs of arm and shoulder muscle....
So got my brush and started painting. About an hour later, I got tired of that so decided to lift the carpet.
Here's the progress.
It must be noted I couldn't remove the carpet and underlay completely because I have a two and a half year old. Not only is she two and a half, but also is the type who would find every nail, spike and staple in the floor with her feet, knees, butt, hands and probably, face at least once. )
I started with sanding the polyfilla on ALL the walls. Add 2 lbs of arm and shoulder muscle....
Wipe down ALL the walls. Add a further 2 lbs of arm and shoulder muscle....
At this point, I got tired. I had the choice of starting to sand the spindles on the stair railing or do a little painting. I chose painting but I still have to remove the light fixture and tape off everything. ugh. I opted to do the thinner bits of wall around the door rather than dive into all that prep work. Like I've said before I have no patience and slight OCD. Hate prep work but want perfectly clean lines.
Doomed, I know.
So got my brush and started painting. About an hour later, I got tired of that so decided to lift the carpet.
Here's the progress.
It must be noted I couldn't remove the carpet and underlay completely because I have a two and a half year old. Not only is she two and a half, but also is the type who would find every nail, spike and staple in the floor with her feet, knees, butt, hands and probably, face at least once. )
Luckily we have a really good subfloor so, thankfully, I won't need to do any work there.
I think I must have put on about 10lbs of arm and shoulder muscle doing this!
Carpet is bloody heavy!
What's involved in tearing up carpet...
1. Pull carpet out from the spiky trim bits at the doorways and around the walls.
2. Pull up the underlay which is stapled to the floor
3. Pull out the staples and hammer down any broken ends
4. Pick a place to start prying up those horrendous carpet gripper things. They are so fricking hard to get up!! I mean, really... do you HAVE to use nails that have threads on them? It looked like a mob of angry Liliputians carrying little tiny hammers went mental with unicorn horns and nailed down these bits of inferior wood product to my floor with the express purpose of making it REALLY F**KING DIFFICULT TO PRY THEM UP!!! If I had caught them, I would have stomped on them.
That said, I'm sure that pro carpet layers have some secret trade tool they use to make it easier. A tool you likely can't buy in B&Q either. Bastards.
So I soldiered on with two hammers (one small hammer to use as a pry bar whilst banging it soundly with the other hammer.... no I don't have a crowbar but wish I did.... easier to smush those angry Lilliputians!)
GRRRRRR!!
2 Hours later with lots of swearing, smashed fingers and a couple scraped knuckles later and this is as far as I got before crying uncle.
By the way.... I don't have a pair of pliers either so I had to pull the staples out with my bare fingers!!
(maybe I should start asking for tool donations. I'm such a DIY charity case!)
Next issue: Finish ripping out the carpet.
Be glad you don't have a proper pry bar- when I was pulling up the 8 layers of previous flooring in my bathroom, I borrowed one to deal with the hundreds of nails left behind and managed to give myself a black eye when it slipped and smashed me right in the face!
ReplyDeletethat said you really do need a pair of pliers- if you didn't live across the ocean I'd happily lend you one!