I removed a bunch of it (and nasty carpet) today, and imagine 20 years worth of dog & cat pee, vomit, spilled drinks and who knows what else — all stuck to the bottom of it. I could see the stains on the wood beneath the carpet padding. Oh, and there was so much dirt & dust … clouds of it filled the rooms as I removed it. Hey hey - exciting stuff.
I have the money to pay a contractor to do this, but I want to do it myself to learn. I might just pay him next time though!!! LOL
Hey, just a quick tip to ANYONE doing this themselves…
Make SURE you guys are wearing respirators when doing this!!! Not those piece o’ chit paper masks, but REAL HEPA filtered respirators.
The stuff in that padding is TOXIC. I’m not talking about the padding, I mean the animal droppings that filter through it. Mice droppings ESPECIALLY!!! Mouse dropping can contain the HANTA VIRUS, this virus lies dormant until you create dust. Once that dust gets in your lungs the HANTA VIRUS awakens and it can literally KILL YOU.
Believe me…I’m a Firefighter, My JOB is to enter toxic atmospheres. You DO NOT want to mess with this virus.
You know what’s really nasty??? That same pad from the 1940’s or 1950s that’s never been changed. I’m currently rehabbing half of a duplex for the first time. I’ve owned it for probably 3 years, but it was rented by inherited tenants. They are now gone and I want to paint the wood floors (for ease of maintenance). I discovered that there are two layers of carpet on top of the old pad. The top layer looks like it was laid in the 1950s. The lower layer was obviously laid earlier than that. Underneath both of those layers was a reddish stuff with a thin fabric on the top. At first, I thought it was glue, but it had a pattern pressed into it. I tried to scrape it off the floor, which was nearly impossible. One day when the local section 8 inspector was in the neighborhood, I asked him to look at it. He said that it was ancient carpet pad which had basically broken totally down. He suggested trying some solvents or even WD40 on it, and none of that worked. Next, I’ll try a floor sander/floor grinder. If none of that works, I’ll just lay some new carpet over it. UGH! …and yes, FDJake, I will definitely wear a respirator.
Now I know how nasty it really is. I spent 7 LONG HOURS today with a rented floor sander and 20 grit (extremely coarse) sandpaper trying to get that old pad off the floor. It was more like a very hard glue than an old pad. The worst part is that I still have one room to go!