I Was Floored!

Even this morning my face is still wrenched up in a look of disgust from what I discovered yesterday. Upon arriving at the cottage, I decided to spend some time inside the house, since it was so hot outside. I made my way into the little blue room that will soon be divided to become the new entry way and walk-in closet.

It's easy to tell that a young boy used to occupy this room because of all the stars pasted on the ceiling, the Buzz Lightyear sticker above the window, the electric blue paint on the walls and dark blue carpet on the floor and of course the skull and crossbones etched on the closet door with a crayon. Little did I know how telling that would be!

My goal was to pull up all the carpet, padding and tack strips in that room. It was the last wall to wall carpet left in the house and I was thrilled that it would soon be out. I could already smell the difference in the house since the other carpets had been torn up.

I grabbed a hammer and flat bar and began prying the rug up. As I tugged and pulled, the carpet lifted and I rolled it up as I went. As I started to see the underside of the carpet I noticed the giant stains on the rough burlap bottom. They seemed to cover the entire underside. Then as the pad beneath was revealed the mold was clearly visible! Ugh....can you imagine how unhealthy this must have been, especially for a child to breath this while he slept at night or played on his floor? I am sure his parents had no idea this danger lurked beneath the rug. It looked to me as if the rug was probably steam cleaned at one time but stayed damp and began to mold.

Believe it or not, it got even worse. When I pulled the padding up, the floor was covered with so much dirt it looked as though someone had once used the room as a sandbox and just covered it over with carpet. Beneath the sand and dirt the floor was completely moldy.

    I will have to clean and treat the floor so no further mold growth occurs and then I will paint a sealer on all the floors before covering. The one thing I have decided after this though, is that no wall to wall carpet will be installed in this house. I am going to lay wood flooring and tile throughout and just have area rugs where needed. I'm sure glad I don't have to pull up anymore carpets!