Would you rip up this carpet?

[BabyBumblebee]

OK, serious advice needed here.

Our kitchen carpet is seriously nasty. I shampoo it a lot, but it still gets really stinky and gross. It's ultra thin and cheap, and is basically all wrinkled and rucked up where the last people installed it. Oh, and it has a nice hole in it where the cats attacked it. Underneath the carpet there's a layer of particle board...this extends the whole way through the kitchen, including under the really horrible and broken tile too.

So here's the question - would you rip this up, even if you couldn't afford to replace it anytime soon? If you would, what do you think it would look like? Is there anything I can do to smarten it up?

TIA

[momto l&a]

We had some super nasty carpet in out living room that we tore out. Its amazing how much better our house smells

Anyway there where 5 inch pine boards under some 1/4 inch stuff that also was torn out. The pine boards where oiled. Durable, water proof and rustic

Could always paint the floor.

Yes I would tear it out.

[peverroad]

I would. Is it a rental or do you own. If it is a rental i would see if landlord would pay for carpet if you put it in (we done that before) If you own i would still take it up. Are you really short on money. Could you buy a big rug to put down or see if anyone has one you could use. I remember when we did ours i checked everywhere for carpet and home depot had the best price. We got an indoor outdoor type carpet (not that nasty green plastic stuff) this was really soft black and i think they had blue. I think it was really cheap. i want to say like 22 cents a square foot but i don't know what that would come out to i think we paid like 300 and got enought to do 3 rooms and DH old truck (he was customizing it so he wanted to carpet the bed)
You can get that peel and stick laminte. you can get it for less than 10 a box and i think there is 25 square foot in a box. those are cheapest at Family Dollar and home depot.
hope that helps some

[mamamelia]

i would rip it up and put a rug instead. at least rugs can be washed and be taken outside to be naturally disinfected.

[caeden&connersmom]

Oooohhh, rip it out!

I am actually not a fan of carpeting in *any* room, but the kitchen, thats just icky!!

You could probably find a vinyl floor remanent for cheap, tack down the edges until you can do something more permanent.

We ripped all the carpeting from our current house after we bought it and found gorgeous hard pin efloors underneath! They will need to be refinished at some point, but what luck! Next is taking up the ugly linoleum in the kitchen and replacing with ceremic (Not for awhiel though, bills come first, ugh)

[Steady101]

I would rip it up. Carpet in the kitchen and bathroom are nasty to me. Youo can't just leave the particle board though because any water that getson it will warp and later it will crumble. If you can get some cheap peel and stick tiles or a piece of linolium that would be better.

[pjlioness]

I second the "rip it up". I just don't understand putting carpet in the kitchen. We have it in ours - fortunately it is an icky brown color so stains don't really show. When we can affort to put in some tile, it will be gone.

[phathui5]

Rip it up and replace it with rugs you can wash or beat.

[mightymoo]

vinyl stick tiles are easy to install and pretty cheap to cover the particle board - FYI that's your subfloor.

[momto l&a]

Do you know whats under the carpeting?

What age is your house?

[SugarAndSun]

Rip it up! If yourreally broke, buy a gallon or two of floor paint. That will keep dust down and allow you to clean it. If you have a little money, buy some cheap floor tiles at Home Depot.

I would bleach the subfloor before I did anything though. (And I never use bleach!) It probalby has a lot of nasty stuff!

[Throkmorton]

Rip it up! Kitchen carpet is nasty!

I second the peel and stick tiles. they are about 50c/sq ft and certainly better than nothing. i put them down when i ripped up the carpet in my bathroom (the only room in the house with nastier carpet than a kitchen) and it was really easy.

[Treasuremapper]

I would rip that carpet out! Absolutely. So fast your head would spin. It's the kitchen though, so you have to seal it.

Even if you cannot afford to replace the floor, can you afford to cover the particle board with plywood and then stain it with beautiful colors and then top it with varnish? I looked into dying a plywood subfloor with aniline dye and then sealing it at one point in my life when I could not afford to buy carpet. I saw a beauty parlor that had gorgeous floors and they told me they were plywood with aniline dye, so I had to check it out. http://tinyurl.com/g8p3h The linky is to the contact information for the salon, Bella Hair Studio, if you want to call them and ask about how to do it.

I have no idea if it would work for particle board, though. I also have no idea how green aniline dye is, I can just attest to the fact that it their floors are stunningly gorgeous.

If that isn't going to happen, then could you just paint the particle board with a beautiful design? Did you ever see the book "Living on the Earth" -- http://tinyurl.com/ewqvu -- the original edition I read had an inspiring painted wood floor.

[Ruthla]

I'd rip it up and either get peel and stick tiles or paint the wood floor until you're able to replace it with something really nice.

[serenetabbie]

I agree whole heartedly with everyone! Rip it up, kitchen carpet is just nasty.
I of the mind that any wall to wall carpet is gross, so my opinion might not carry that much weight... but in the kichen and bath? EW.

Paint the subfloor, or put those self stick tiles down. I re-did the bathroom floor in those; they look pretty good and they were very inexpensive. The only issue I have with them is you cannot really scrub the floor, you can just damp mop it, unless you get the higher end tiles. We got the bottom line ones for about $20 (one box) in plain white. There are diagrams on the websites (ours was Armstrong) for how to figure out how many boxes you will need.

[my4magpies]

rip it up!! The kitchen is one place for sure you don't want mucky carpet!

[BabyBumblebee]

Thanks mamas! We've decided to rip it out, probably this coming weekend. It's sad - I suspect that underneath the ply are painted pine boards, but we have no way of knowing what kind of a state it would be in. I think we'll clean the floor very thoroughly, and then look at using a stain on it...if nothing else it will give us a much cleaner surface to live with - kinda ideal when you have 3 dogs, 1 toddler and a babe on the way

[momft]

can't rip it off

so, friends... here is my problem: i can't rip my carpet off just now and am expecting my first baby in a few months. is there an alternative to ripping? if i vaccum it and put a natural fiber rug on top? i'll clean both regularly to the best of my capacity. but is this a healthy option considering that i can't rip my wall to wall right now? or should i just leave it be? please help

[fek&fuzz]

why can't you rip it up?

[limette]

pull it up and out. here at dollarama you can buy peel and stick tiles for 4/$1. so 0.25/square foot.