Some assembly required

[carbonel]

This is going to get expensive, I can tell.

Sometime last year, my sewer backed up, right onto the yucky brown carpet in my basement, making it even yuckier. Stanley Steemer said they wouldn't touch it because it was "black dirt" -- their euphemism, I assume for nasty poopy stuff. I got referrals for a couple of places that did deal with such (thanks, 1crowdedhour). I meant to do something about it one of these days, but days kept passing without anything happening.

But now I have a housemate arriving for an indefinite amount of time, and it seemed only proper to deal with it. So I called the first place on the list, and was informed that if sewage had touched the carpet at all, it couldn't be salvaged. So that meant carpet removal and disposal from the main basement room. The other basement room, the bedroom, hadn't been touched by the flood (it had been more like seepage than an actual flood, after all), and I'd planned to just have it cleaned. But the cleaning people shone their light on it and demonstrated several areas of cat pee, and that, combined with the fact that I hate brown carpeting, led me to tell them to take that out as well.

So the nice guys from KrispyClean (I kid you not) are at this moment removing the carpet and disinfecting and deyucking whatever is left behind. The next step will be to get either suitable basement carpet or some sort of floor cover installed.

Once I'd moved into house improvement mode, the next step seemed less intimidating. My living room has an entirely different flavor of yucky brown carpeting, and I'd planned to hold off doing anything about it while Gandalf was around, because he'd been caught peeing on this carpet several times, and I didn't want to give him the opportunity to do so on new flooring.

But it's a new year, and I am, alas, Gandalfless. After a certain amount of dithering about new carpet versus installing wood flooring, I called Rick Charmoli, who several years ago did a bang-up job removing the yucky brown carpeting (I just don't understand the people who lived here before) and refinishing the wood underneath in other parts of the house. Unfortunately, the living room was an addition, so there isn't any nice wood underneath, just plywood. But Rick says that there's a type of wood that he can install that will match nicely. He's coming over tonight, and I'm in trepidation as to what it can possibly cost. Lots, I'm sure.

But when that's done, there'll be two more mandatory phases to finishing the living room (window treatments and lighting), and two optional phases (an additional rug -- I already have one -- and a nice piece of storage furniture). And then I'll be done. At least until I think of something else I need.

Life was much easier in some ways when I lived in an apartment with hand-me-down furniture from my parents.

Comments

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

Good for you!

I'm glad the rec worked out. That was a task that would require action eventually. Good for you getting after it now, when you have several options.

When it is all done, your lving room is going to look absolutely wonderful!

[haniaw.livejournal.com]

Just a comment about sewer backups. If you don't already have one, there's a nifty new device that a plumber can put on your main house drain that detects backups and closes the drain automatically so that nothing can come into your basement. I don't know what it's called but I saw it on one of the home improvement shows on HGTV.

brown carpet mysteries

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

When my family bought their suburban house in 1968, it had seafoam green carpeting downstairs and brown stuff upstairs. The best that could be said for it was that it showed little wear and no dirt.

[pameladean]

We too have been haunted by ugly brown carpeting. The stuff in the upstairs living room, dining room, and sunroom (MY OFFICE, dammit) is exactly the same as that awful stuff we took out of the dining room in the Minnehaha house but left in the living room for you to take out. I guess we're being punished. I hope all goes well and you can soon gloat over much nicer flooring.

P.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the progress!

If I replace my basement carpet before I try to sell the house, I will for sure install Dricore (http://www.dricore.com/en/eIndex.aspx) or whatever equivalent is available as a subfloor under the carpet.

I don't know that it would have changed the repairs necessary due to your sewer back-up, but it would have saved my current carpet from the backwash seepage I experienced in March, 2007, and it would minimize or eliminate any other basement dampness from heavy rains or similar issues.

[carbonel]

My sewer backup appears to have been solely due to tree roots in the sewer pipes. Now that I know I need to have Ron the Sewer Rat or one of his cohorts in annually, I'm hoping it won't recur.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Ah, the joys of home ownership. While I live in a condo on the 2nd floor and don't have that particular problem, we have our own concerns...

Good luck on the redecorating!

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

I'd take a look at something like "Bellawood" or "Pergo". They're both snap together systems that you can DIY. If you choose to go with solid oak I'd look at the prefinished versions as factory coatings are much more durable than site applied. Good luck on your search and if I can help I'll be glad too.