We named the rug in the sunroom Stinky. We were feeling literal, and it was damp in the corners from moisture seeping into the sunroom from bad seals in the old sliders and some wood rot. The previous owners knew there was a moisture issue (along with a serious smell issue) in there, which definitely came into play when they set the low-enough-to-be-in-our-range listing price, so although this rug sounds like a curse, we actually consider it to be a blessing (heck, if we can take care of something that might turn off other buyers and it helps us afford a house that we LOVE, we’re all about it).
So here’s how we got that rug up and outta there along with the glued down rug pad underneath – and some pretty serious nails and staples that were lurking below. First we yanked up the rug in the corner using a small crowbar to free it up from some of the nails in the tack strips around the perimeter of the room that were holding it in place.
After we got the rug free from the tack strips around the edges of the room, we rolled each side like a scroll, towards the midpoint of the room. Once we got them there in the middle, we used a box cutter to slice the rug in half so it was easier to carry out of there (you can cut a rug before you roll it, but we found that the extra slack that it gained after it was rolled made cutting it easier once it was in this position). Then we carried each section away while trying not to inhale or think about how much of our body it was touching.
Next we attacked the rug pad, which sadly was glued all over the place (we hoped it was just a floating pad so the concrete under it wouldn’t have glue stains out the wazoo). Soon enough… we hit glue. Boo, glue, boo. And suddenly this post is an ode to Dr Seuss.
Oh well, still had to get it outta there, glue stains and all. We yanked up as much as we could with our hands and for the areas that were super stuck to the glue, we used the same $25 floor scraper from Home Depot that had come in handy when we removed the carpet in the upstairs bedrooms. It has a pretty sharp and smooth blade at the end of it, so just like you’d use a razor to get paint off glass, you run it across the floor with some force and it basically slices the glue right off so the floor is smooth and flush again.
So glad the glue bumps could be removed, even if the glue stains were still there (I’ll show you those a little closer in a second).
While I was slicing my way around with the floor scraper (yes, with my dangly earrings on because I’m cool like dat) John got to work on busting the tack strips out from around the perimeter of the room. They were basically spindly old wood strips with nails sticking up that had held the carpet in place, and they were a pain to get up since they were so brittle (they kept splintering and breaking instead of coming up all as one strip – even when John worked the prybar under them every few inches to pry them away from the floor). It probably took a good hour and a half just to get the rug pad, excess glue, and tack strips up after spending about ten minutes pulling up the carpet itself.
Once all the tack strips, random nails, and glue spots were up it was time for the shop vac. First I picked out the longer shards of wood to bag and dispose of separately (no sense in trying to suck up a foot-long shard of wood with the shop vac) but all of the small splinters of wood, nails, balls of glue, and tufts of old carpet got swept into piles and vacuumed up.
And with that, the room turned a corner. The raw concrete, even with the glue stains that it has, is definitely an improvement on the swampy old carpet.
And thanks to my little scraper action, the entire floor is flush and smooth now, even with those frustrating glue stains that have soaked into the concrete (at least they no longer bump out along with a slew of nails and staples).
So we think a good cleaning followed by a coat of stain & odor blocking primer (just to be sure the stink is really gone) along with some porch and floor paint will cover up those stains, seal in any lingering smells (so they won’t waft out to greet us on a hot day), and we’ll have a room that’s approximately 98% more pleasant to be in.
And down the line we have big plans for this room. So beyond this little carpet’s-gotta-go first step, we’d love to…
Rip up old stinky carpet and padding- Scrub the concrete and seal in the smell somehow (so it doesn’t leech odor forever)
- Stain or paint the concrete floor as part of Phase 1*
- Permanently remove the half-broken base heater
- Eventually retile the floor with outdoor-safe stone to upgrade the old concrete floors (down the line for Phase 2)
- Convert sunroom to an open covered porch with new columns and no more sliders (many of the sliders are bad and the posts are rotten) – we’re envisioning something like this
- Possibly build a brick outdoor fireplace off of the sunroom after we open it up? Kind of like this, but different…
- Add beadboard to the ceiling and paint it soft blue?
* This is just a first-thought brain dump, so if we learn that painting the floor won’t allow us to tile it down the road, we’ll course correct and share the new plan as we go
So glad to have that old carpet gone. Even though we had to carry it out to the garage ourselves (which sends a shiver up my spine every time I think about it) it was totally worth it to have it outta there.
Psst- Clara’s having more conversations over on Young House Life. Number 5 made us laugh until we cried.
Jennifer says
I LOVE blue ceilings for porches. We (as in my hubby and FIL) just finished our porch ceiling in “Porch Blue” a Valspar Porch and Floor Paint. It is beautiful!
Julie B says
Have you tried Nok-Out? Amazing and non-toxic. Disinfects and gets rid of odors, too. We have used Nok-Out for rent house ick (let’s just not even go there) and sick room smells/laundry for years. Lou and her son, Ted, are great to work with and have been very helpful with my stinky/icky woes. (No, I don’t work for them, nor do I get any perks. Just a great product and great customer service.) nokout.com
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds good!
xo
s
Jennifer I says
Oh, so glad to see how you are tackling this!! I have a sunroom with carpeting glued to cement, and left it there when I saw the glue. I may give it a go to remove with that floor scraper! We have resolved all leaks but one, although nothing smells in there. In any event, I have always hated the carpet. I thought about floating stone tiles or floating fake deck in there, but unfortunately, our room is on a slight slope, and I think it would be really difficult to even it out, so paint or carpet are probably are only options. :( Can’t wait to see the changes that you make!
Sarah J. says
ooooh! so much better. and that will be great when everything is said and done. we have a covered patio and we love it so much! we use it all the time, probably more than we would if it was enclosed, like your sunroom. so i’m very excited for you guys to be able to enjoy some fun in the shade!
Erin says
Have you thought about skim coating a layer of concrete on top of the existing concrete and then stamping it and staining it? I found a picture on Pinterest of wood stamped concrete that just looks amazing! Here is a site with some pics: http://thelilhousethatcould.com/2011/03/03/spring-fever/. I think it looks awesome and it would love to do it at my house, but we don’t really have any place to do it at. We could probably do it pretty easily on our front stoop and steps, but there are many other things to be done first. I just wonder if it might be cheaper in the end to do this over putting in tile.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s amazing!!! My only worry is if you have to build it up too much to stamp it (like more than a tile floor would build it up) it might be an awkwardly high lip off of the deck. Will have to check it out!
xo
s
Sue says
Much better! If you plan to tile, make sure that priming and painting the concrete doesn’t create a problem down the road .. . . Like the tile mastic won’t properly adhere. I’ve been wanting to stain or paint an outdoor concrete patio as a temporary measure, but have been reading on line that you have to remove paint in before installing tile. You may want to consider going direct to tiling. Floors, floors and more floors.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Sue!
xo
s
Rachel says
Hi YHL –
One thing you may consider is getting a company in there that has an air pasteurization machine. We unfortunately had a major leak to our condo where the HOA claimed responsibility for the leak but their hired vendor didn’t dry out the area quick enough and we ended up getting toxic mold. =( The smell permeated the whole condo (and all our stuff!). We finally were able to get the HOA to agree (as part of mold remediation process) to bring in an air pasteurization machine which ran in our case for several days that helped immensely. This would cost probably a couple hundred dollars and may be overkill as I see much simpler options listed but wanted to throw that out just in case. Good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah, that’s good to know! Our sunroom actually doesn’t smell anymore (it all seemed to be in the rug for the most part) – even though it has been scorching hot around here (we thought odors would come poring out, but so far, nada). We’ll definitely call on an expert if we suspect there’s a mold issue though!
xo
s
Julianne says
Bet you’re happy to have stinky G.O.N.E.!! I love the idea of opening up the room to make a covered porch! The Pinterest picture you linked is stunning…I could totally see this for your space. Can’t wait to see it all come together! :O)
Gwen says
A definitely improvement! Sunrooms are awesome. I grew up with a screened-in-porch and it was LOVER-LY!
Melissa says
The “tack strips” you keep referring to are usually called “smooth edge”. :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Who knew! Thanks for the tip!
xo
s
JC says
How about cleaning it with the bio cleaners until the smells are gone, then a nice thin layer of self-leveling concrete? Easy DIY, no more stains, and you have a nice, fresh floor to paint, stain, lay tile, or anything else on?
YoungHouseLove says
Definitely another option!
xo
s
Peggy McKee says
I’m wondering how thick the concrete is–and what’s under it? Is there a foundation wall under the sun room? Or is it on posts like the deck? Any idea why someone would pour a concrete floor for a room?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, we’ll have to go under the deck to see what’s under there. I don’t imagine there’s anything pretty like brick (I would seriously give someone the stink eye if they covered up beautiful brick floors with concrete, haha!).
xo
s
Annie says
Give some serious thought to painting it a high gloss white. It will bounce a lot of beautiful light into the family room!
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that’s a fun idea. I think I’d worry it would show every leaf/spec of dirt that the dog/Clara/me/John drag in there.
xo
s
Megan Poletti says
This week at the theater space where I work we had a maintenance day that involved dumping 3 giant rolls of so-big-it-covers-the-entire-stage carpet. It was so smelly and dirty, I don’t even want to go into it. I had on gloves, safety goggles, and a filtery mask thingy the whole time. We ended up breaking out the reciprocating saw to chop it up because the box cutters were just taking too long. GROSS. I salute you in honor of our shared carpet disposal nightmares.
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds terrible! So glad you made it through. The reciprocating saw = genius.
xo
s
Elizabeth says
I know I should go through all the comments to see if someone asked this already, but there are sooo many and I am tired :). What is the smell? Like animal smell? I’m just curious because I’m a weirdo.
YoungHouseLove says
It’s soft of musty like a wet dog. Not like urine, but more like a damp towel that you leave somewhere (like in a plastic bag) for a month and then smell it. Not that I’d know about that from being a kid and going to camp and forgetting to clean our my camp bag…
xo
s
Alani says
It looks so much better already!
Instead of painting and sealing the concrete, have you thought about honing the concrete and hopefully remove those stains while exposing the aggregate in the slab? Then you can seal it afterwards.
The quality of the slab would depend on the finish, but it’s quite easy to do, it just requires a little muscle. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that’s a fun idea! What would I use to hone it? I’d love more info!
xo
s
Alani says
We hired a machine like this..
http://www.concretecare.com.au/index.php?fuseaction=product.view&productid=13&ctu=1&type=Grinder&lvl=2
to do the job. It uses diamond discs to grind away the layers of concrete. You use different coarses to create different finishes, starting from a smooth but matte finish all the way to glossy polished concrete.
We are in AU but I’m sure there would be somewhere you can hire a similar type of machine to try it. It will depend on how good your concrete is and how much aggregate you have. More aggregate = prettier finish. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip Alani! Thanks!
xo
s
Julia @ Cuckoo4Design says
Love your plans and am so excited to see where they are heading!
Steph Nelson says
I’m a bit late to the game on this post but…
First, this post has some hilarious comments! :)
Second, I sell Janitorial supplies for my job and would strongly suggest ~odorcide 210~ to kill your odor. If you mix it and saturate the concrete, let it dry, you will have no odors left at all. I’m sure you can find it online or a janitorial store in your area but here is a link to the product itself.
http://www.odorcide.com/
I had a rotten potato smell that NOTHING got rid of until I used this. On contact, BAM! Gone!
Third~It cracks me up that I made a comment to myself about your earrings and then you wrote something about them.
:)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Steph! So good to know!
xo
s
Megan T says
I really love the look of stained concrete and can’t wait to see how it turns out for ya’ll. I’m thinking of taking on a similar project on an outdoor patio we are putting in, but will probably wait to see your tutorial first :)
Sandra Hughes says
What I’m loving about your house is how a little money and lots of elbo grease is making such a big difference. I know there are big money projects in the future but you really have a great place where projects like this go along way. Looking forward to wallpaper removal and some painting, Awesome!
Audrey says
This isn’t really related to this post, but I was wondering, looking back at the after photos of your first house, what you might do differently decor wise if you were to do it all over again starting now? (Not that your first house wasn’t absolutely gorgeous the way you had it, but it might be a fun post now that your vision has changed a little and your experiences have grown. :) )
YoungHouseLove says
We actually wrote a post about that! It was fun! https://www.younghouselove.com/2012/12/first-house-second-take/
xo
s
Susan says
Our place had indoor outdoor carpet…on the outdoor steps!
It was glued down-ever square inch of it.
We used Concrete Restore-HD and Lowe’s both carry it; it’s fairly inexpensive and really worked well-and since we get so much snow/ice, it MUCH safer, too.
here’s a link: ( I have no stake in this company, LOL it’s just a good product IMHO)
http://synta.com/
Bailey says
I love your plans for the sunroom!! Tearing up that carpet looks like it must have been so satisfying, all said and done.
xox
Bailey
http://akabailey.blogspot.com
Nardia Cooper says
ooh it will be really nice once you open up the sun room and having an outdoor fire is a great idea. I really want one of these fires as it doubles as a BBQ and can be fuelled using wood or coals. http://www.livingflame.co.nz/gallery/14/Outdoor-Chef-Cook-On-1200-1500mm
This is the first thing I want to build when we buy our forever home.
Brittany watts says
Have you ever thought about staining your concrete to look like tile like this: http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/workshop/paintconcrete.htm or paint it and add a sweet stencil over it like this: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/diy-floors-painted-stenciled-a-144119. I just think staining is so cool, especially because you can always change it later when your tastes change…. An it’s cheaper hahahaha
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we did both of those things at our first house with the concrete sunroom (we stained it, and later painted and stenciled it). It’s definitely a fun option!
xo
s
Rachel says
Random question. I know y’all are super good at saving up for future projects. I’m a grad student and my pay is moving from biweekly to once-a-month, and doesn’t even resume again until the end of August, so I’m facing a “holy crap, I need to budget so I don’t run out of money” thing. I was wondering: do you have a way of earmarking money for certain projects (e.g., a separate savings account for each project/room of the house), or do you just put it all in one big pot? If I didn’t want to keep my money in the bank so it could grow interest, I’d be labeling jars and sticking cash in them, but for all I know, maybe there’s a way to “name” a savings account and you just make tons of different accounts, haha. Anyway, if you had advice, that would be awesome. :)
YoungHouseLove says
We use two accounts to keep track of things and earn as much interest on larger amounts of money as possible. One is our local account (low interest rate, so we keep money for smaller projects in there so we don’t have too much tied up in that account when it could be earning more interest). Then we have an online bank with a higher interest rate (but it takes longer for money to transfer from that than just visiting our local branch, so that one is for long term savings). For example, if we’re working on stripping wallpaper and painting trim (now), the money comes from our local savings account. But if we’re saving up for a year towards something like a kitchen update or a new deck, we’ll always be diverting extra money over that time to the high yield account (usually once a month we put any extra cash into that account) and then we’ll withdraw the money a year later when it’s time to get that bigger project done. Hope it helps!
xo
s
Lauren says
Check out Mint.com, a free budgeting app. Very helpful. Easy to use.
Cristina says
This looks EXACTLY like my den right now! We are going from gross, water stained carpet (from leaking, rotting, French doors – now replaced) to hard woods. Yay!
We had the same issue with glue stains (I’m still working to scrap the adhesive today), but we were also greeted by lots and lots of large red stains on the floor. I sincerely hope a murder did not happen in my den…yikes! Good thing were covering it back up.
Also, yay this is my first comment on your site (that wasn’t for a giveaway). Love you guys!
Shannon {Our Home Notebook} says
You must be so happy to get that carpet out of there! It’s looking so much better. I love how you plan some of your projects in phases. It makes projects so much more doable sometimes (especially on the budget) and is a good reminder that we don’t always have to wait until we can do everything to make a space better.
Teri says
Haint Blue porch ceiling… to keep the ghosts from coming into your house :) Ben Moore has a pretty haint blue porch color, Haint Blue Savannah. lovely light bluish/green.
Lee says
we wonder why o why anyone installs carpet these days. It’s expensive, it cannot be sanitized which is horrible if you have pets and worse yet if you have crawling babies.
So glad you’re removing Stinky! I spent 2 days last week removing stinky in our moving to older home. Then to remove Stinky from our current home. I’m seeing a pattern here.
Amanda says
I hope this doesn’t sound terribly rude, but does John have gray hair now? In the first picture, I had to do a double-take because it didn’t quite look like him! He’s very handsome and distinguished though. Lucky you! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Yep. Early graying is a nice trait I inherited. Although I think that picture makes it look a bit more dramatic than it really is. So far it’s just a bit of a “dusting” in the front.
-John
Jessica says
Yes, indeed — boo, glue, boo!
Five years later, I still find the occasional staple in my wood floors that I missed in the process of removing the gross carpet. The huge bonus was that carpet had protected the floors since the 1980s, so other than some staples, they were in pretty good shape.
Can’t wait to see the next steps in your house!
Tammy EL says
Anti-icky-poo all the way!
My husband and I completely restored our Victorian home.
I know you have a vision, and it will be beautiful…because I have loved all of your renovations thus far!!
Take this with a grain of salt…but ceiling fans will not cut the mosquitos. We put a screened patio in while our neighbors up and down the block went more for an open feel. I’m not knocking the beauty of their outdoor spaces. And they are beautiful! However, it limits the time they can actually use it because all the ceiling fans and fireplaces and citronella candles do not do the job.
Each of our neighbors have complained about this issue on more than one occasion.
Not trying to sway, just want you to hear from someone who has been there, done that.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Tammy! Do you live in VA? We’d keep the doors wide open in both of our previous sunrooms with the fans on and we didn’t have a mosquito issue. With folks coming in and out when we entertained it was just impossible to keep the screens & doors closed, so the whole open-with-fans-on seemed to work for us. Maybe if you’re in FL or SC or something they’re more viscous?
xo
s
lauren says
hey! i think we have some carpet ripping up to do soon (if our short sale ever closes, fingers crossed) yippee! wondering where you toss the old carpet and trash…do you rent a dumpster during your renos or just put it in a public one nearby? would love the advice! thanks!
L
YoungHouseLove says
We have heard a ton of options (can recycle it, donate it, cut it into small rolls and have the trash truck pick it up, can freecycle it so others can use it (like pet shops or even for gardening to block weeds) so right now we have a giant pile in the garage but we’re looking into those options.
xo
s
Barb says
We have a screened-in porch that has carpet that is glued down too. If we weren’t thinking about putting in windows and installing a Mitsubishi heater/air-conditioner so we can enjoy the room 10 months a year I would SO buy these teak interlocking floor tiles!! I love them.
http://www.frontgate.com/classic-interlocking-teak-floor-tiles/156014?redirect=y
YoungHouseLove says
So cool!
xo
s
Kimberlyn says
Last fall, a few days before I went back to work (I am a teacher), I decided to rip up my nasty living room carpet. I had been wanting to do it for a long time, but was living with it because I didn’t have the money to refinish the hardwoods underneath. And then one day it occurred to me: The unfinished floor would be ten times better than the nasty carpet. It was gone in two days.
I LOVE your blog. I bought a copy of HGTV Magazine to read on my way home from my vacation in North Carolina and have been reading your posts this past week.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kimberlyn!
xo
s
Steph says
Have you guys maybe thought about polished concrete floors in your sunroom. It’s becoming pretty popular here in Australia and it looks awesome, really good for kids and pets, just super ‘hard waring’, if that’s even a word.
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds awesome! We’ll have to look into that!
xo
s
Elizabeth says
What a Deja Vu – I stumbled upon your website a few years ago while googling how to paint/stain a concrete floor. I’ve been hooked since then. Can’t wait to see the finished product. :)
KatieQ says
I know it’s not photogenic, but the this little old lady worries about things like allergens and nasty growing things in smelly old water damaged rugs, so I wish you would have been wearing masks (not the bank robber kind). There were no kids to chase off my lawn today so I worried about your health instead.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Alisa says
We took the carpet out of our office/studio (no sunrooms here- boo!) expecting to find pet stains or other moisture issues because it smelled SO bad. We found cigarettes. Yup, lots of used cigarettes were under the carpet/carpet pad for 30+ years. No pet urine though so at least it aired out quickly before we put down the new floors.
JP says
I live in MD, not too far down the road, and I’m going to side with the I-wouldn’t-trade-my-screened-in-porch-for-anything crowd. I love family dinners on the porch with no skeeters. Cereal and coffee in the morning with no skeeters. Ebook in the afternoon with no skeeters. And don’t forget the very rare wine, cheese, and chocolate date after the kids are in bed – with no skeeters.
Susan says
I am so excited to see how you guys tackle this. We have a room downstairs in a high-traffic (dog filled) area that is carpeted, but we think is on the concrete slab. We eventually (as in after bathroom and kitchen renovation) want to tear out the carpet and either work with the concrete or put slate tile down. So excited to see this!
Gabi says
Heehee “cut a rug before you roll it”. New dance moves….
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Steven Bone says
I can’t believe that no one mentioned nok-out to get rid of the odor. nokout dot com is their website. Don’t seal it, just neutralize it. I’ve tried lots of products with high hopes of removing pet odors (Zep odor control didn’t touch it for > 1 week), but this one is the real thing.
RETROSMITH. says
What a difference no carpet makes! Thought I should let you know, re your note down the bottom of your post, painting the floor will make tiling extra difficult. It can be done, but you’ll need to grind off the paint, prime the concrete and then tile. Problem is tile adhesive won’t stick to paint. You’ll need to prime the surface no matter what, to prevent things like moisture being leeched from glue etc through concrete. Priming is easy though. Can’t wait to see how this room progresses!!!
Penny Smith says
Sorry if someone has shared this before… I hear it’s great non-stinky, non-toxic stuff!
http://www.ecoprocote.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/pds.soycrete.0511.sm.pdf
Penny Smith says
(a I allowed to link anything?)
YoungHouseLove says
Sure, thanks for the tip!
xo
s
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip!
xo
s
Christina says
My brother has a degree in Concrete Industrial Mgmt. and one thing he did at my parents’ house was stain the concrete. I’m sure you’re familiar with that, but it lasts a long time and you can always build on top of it and it won’t chip away like paint might. It was fun helping him create too!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds pretty!
xo,
s