The Carpeted Kitchen, Part II

So I got nosy today and decided to see what was under the carpet in the kitchen. I know the old wood floor is there, since I can see it form the basement, but I wasn't sure if I would find a subfloor also. If there wasn't a subfloor, I was hoping to get a look at the pine to see what kind of shape it's in. I can't see any water damage from the basement, but you never know.

The easiest access point seemed to be where the laminate floor in the dining room met the carpet in the kitchen. There is a strip of moulding screwed down between the two rooms, and it was fairly easy to unscrew and take a peek. This way, I could satisfy my curiosity about two rooms at once. The dining room was just what I expected. Laminate floor over a foam cushion over the yellow pine. It shouldn't be all that difficult to remove, when the time comes.

As for the kitchen floor... Well, I should have expected this, too. The kitchen has several layers of flooring. Let's start at the bottom. We have the original pine floor (condition: unknown), covered by a fiberboard subfloor. The subfloor is about 1/8" thick. Over that, there is a layer of foam padding. On top of the padding is some yellow and brown tiger-striped carpet from the ''70s. It reminds me of a sofa that my Aunt Virginia used to have... The striped carpet was covered by some kind of cement or adhesive. The adhesive is about 1/16" thick and kind of crumbly. On top of that, we have another thin layer of padding and the current carpet.

I know I should have expected this, based on the accretions in the rest of the house, but it still amazes me how many layers of crap are over the original materials. I wish I could go back to the previous previous owner (the PO's did warn us that he had done some strange stuff) and ask him why he did what he did. Or better yet, keep him from doing anything half-assed to the house. The PPO is the one who put paneling over everything, added ceiling tiles, removed necessary ducts, added walls made of paneling, replaced the original windows (thankfully the replacements were wood too), and painted the woodwork. He's probably responsible for the vinyl or plastic brick on the front of the house, too...