hardwood under carpet question

if a house has hardwood underneath w/w carpet (assuming that the floors were in good condition when the carpet was put down) would you need to have the floors refinished if you pulled the carpet up? does putting carpeting down damage the wood at all?

Re: hardwood under carpet question

We pulled up carpet that was covering hardwood floors. We lived for about 6 months without refinishing them b/c they were in decent condition. But we ended up refinishing them b/c they had like a layer of grime or something on them (that you couldn't actually see but you could feel it) that no amount of scrubbing could get out (I could not walk around in socks I always had to have something on my feet). Even though they were in decent condition they look SO much better since refinishing them. It cost us $400 to have the LR/DR and hall done.

ETA: They weren't really damaged but the previous owners used about a million nails when they put the tackle down so we notice alot of littel nail holes!

Message edited 4/13/2007 11:38:44 AM.

Re: hardwood under carpet question

WE pulled all the carpet up when we bought our house. The floors were ok, but definitely needed to be refinsihed. The previous owner used to steam clean her carpets, which did not always dry out, especially with the padding underneath, and thus the floors were sitting with a wet mess on top (even if hte carpet appeared dry). THe floors actually became darker form all the wetness. The guys had to sand a lot!

Re: hardwood under carpet question

Ours looked ok when we pulled up the rugs but, it's amazing how much better they looked after they were refinished. We're in the process of doing it now.

Re: hardwood under carpet question

When my parents pulled up their carpet, the hardwood floors were beautiful. When we pulled our carpet up, the floors were horrible...there was mold and stains. So I guess it depends.

Re: hardwood under carpet question

We had all of our hardwood floors refinished before we moved in. All of it had been covered with w/w carpet. When we pulled up the carpet, the floors weren't terrible, but there were some stains, discolorations and little nail holes which look so much better since we had the floors refinished. We were really happy with our floor guy, and we're glad we did it.

Re: hardwood under carpet question

we pulled up the carpet and had to refinish everything - but they came out beautiful.