What should I expect to find under the carpet?

[Ena2022]

Hello,

I am a novice DIYer with no experience whatsoever so please be gentle.
I live in a house built in the late 1990's. We are the second owners after the original one. I hate the old carpets and due to several reasons we'll not be able to put new ones or other flooring for at least several months if at all. So I was wondering if I took it upon myself to remove the downstairs carpets what should I expect to find after carpets, underlays, etc. removal? I always dreamt of removing the carpets and finding lovely wooden flooring or tiles but since it was built in the 90s I know I shouldn't expect that. Also, is it possible to never replace the flooring?
Any ideas, experiences, welcome!

Concrete I reckon.

90s will be concrete, just lift a bit and see. You really only find good stuff in old houses, not relatively new ones.

Sorry what do you mean is it possible never to replace the flooring? Do you mean keep the current carpets forever? Of course. There is no law on how old your carpet can be.

@Rosebuud

Sorry what do you mean is it possible never to replace the flooring? Do you mean keep the current carpets forever? Of course. There is no law on how old your carpet can be.

@Rosebuud lol no! I meant after removing the carpets! Does the concrete look nice? It might fashionable. I have really lovely rugs that I can put around

@SergeiL

Concrete I reckon.

Which colour, the boring grey one or something else? Is it possible to not put any kind of carpet or flooring on it?

No op, it’s horrible, unless you spend a lot of money having it polished, it’s cold and very dusty, you can’t have bare concrete floors.

Concrete, or rather a screed.

@Rosebuud

No op, it’s horrible, unless you spend a lot of money having it polished, it’s cold and very dusty, you can’t have bare concrete floors.

@Rosebuud Oh OK . I thought it would be kind of polished already Which easy option do I have? Something I could do myself please.

@TwinkleToesStrikesAgain Thanks for the info. This is the first time I heard that word!

Your options are new carpet or laminate really...

Wooden/chip board boarding (big flat plates I suspect (def not floorboards)

Probably concrete.
You can paint it with floor paint as an interim measure.

Do you or a neighbour have a garage? Under the carpet is probably a floor that looks and feels like that.

Probably concrete a bit like this

If your house is built like ours (10 years newer) downstairs will be screed concrete. I wouldn't want that as my floor. .

Upstairs we have big chipboard things. Again, not nice and not great to walk on.

You might be best just putting the rugs on top of the carpet you don't like. It would almost certainly be better than the rough flooring left by the builders upstairs and downstairs.

Don't pull carpet up untill you can replace. I had concrete when I moved in my new build had to wait couple of weeks for carpets to be fitted.
Downstairs was always freezing it and never looked clean there is no rug in the world that can make these floors look better or fashionable.

Op, just lift a section of carpet and have a look. The poster who said it looks like a garage floor is giving you the closest look. It’s cold, hard, dusty and not something anyone would wish in a home. So you need to keep existing flooring until you can afford to replace, there is no worn carpet that’s worse than a bare rough concrete floor.

@All

Thanks so much for all your replies. It's horrible! Of course I will not want to have that. I confess the idea came to me when I watched one of Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country episodes where they lay the carpets in the boys rooms. The flooring underneath looked lovely to me, beige and smooth so I thought it might be the same I hate all types of carpets and wish I had tiles or any other washable flooring instead. What about Vinyl sheets flooring? Again, I watched Sarah and Graham lay one in one of the boys' bathrooms and it looked easy enough. I think they laid it directly on the bare floor without any underlay or did I miss something?

OP, have you actually looked? My parents had tiles I think? Under their living room, early 90s Bryant house. I may be misremembering.

I've laid (as a stop gap) those stick on vinyl tiles in my large kitchen. They actually look nice and I get lots of compliments. It's really made a positive difference. I've done the same in the bathroom but that floor wasn't quite level in places, so it doesn't look as good. Still miles better than concrete. I'm in that annoying phase where I have lots of ideas of fancy extensions and no money...so don't want to pay too much for something if I do an extension in a couple of years and it gets wasted.

Laying flooring isn't as easy as it looks, but its not impossible either. I've done a roll of lino on my bathroom floor (botch job, but it works for now!) as well as carpet squares on my stairs and landing (old wooden floorboards so easy to tap a few nails into each corner). Hard on the old knees and back requires physical stamina as well as high attention to detail.

We are paying someone to replace our kitchen flooring soon - tiles are coming up and the floor will be leveled before laying the laminate. (Hopefully warmer underfoot and easier to clean!) That's definitely not a DIY job.

In your position, OP, I would pay for someone to lay new flooring, as high quality but cheap as possible, and use your rugs over the top. Good luck!

Could you lay on top of the existing carpet or on top of the existing underlay?

[quote Ena2022]@All

Thanks so much for all your replies. It's horrible! Of course I will not want to have that. I confess the idea came to me when I watched one of Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country episodes where they lay the carpets in the boys rooms. The flooring underneath looked lovely to me, beige and smooth so I thought it might be the same I hate all types of carpets and wish I had tiles or any other washable flooring instead. What about Vinyl sheets flooring? Again, I watched Sarah and Graham lay one in one of the boys' bathrooms and it looked easy enough. I think they laid it directly on the bare floor without any underlay or did I miss something?[/quote]
Sheet vinyl is one of the easier floors to fit, especially if you can carefully get the carpet up and use it as a template to cut around.
You probably don’t need underlay but you do need a nice smooth floor.
Vinyl tiles and planks aren’t too difficult either

Sheet vinyl is not easy to fit at all! We have fitted many types of flooring DIY including reclaimed parquet and sheet vinyl was the most difficult. One wrong cut and the whole thing is ruined. Cheaper ones can also tear easily.

The flooring underneath looked lovely to me, beige and smooth so I thought it might be the same

Is your house the same as hers , just younger? Just pull it up and have a look. It’s east to just put back down.

Why don't you just look? Our house is 90s built and has floorboards both downstairs and upstairs, aside from the later extension which has shitty chipboard.

@Rosebuud

The flooring underneath looked lovely to me, beige and smooth so I thought it might be the same

Is your house the same as hers , just younger? Just pull it up and have a look. It’s east to just put back down.

@Rosebuud lol your post actually made me smile. Did you say that ironically? And yes I am planning on having a look. I couldn't find anywhere where I could pull it up without the use of some tools as it is stuck tightly.