How to know if hardwood is under carpet before pulling it up
Pulling up carpet without knowing the condition of the floor risks uncovering damaged wood or subflooring that requires extra work to repair or level. This uncertainty stops people from starting the removal process because they worry the hidden flooring will not be worth the effort.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- It goes quiet, then comes back — 3 separate clusters since May 2026.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
How to know if hardwood is under carpet before pulling it up
- 1keeping existing carpetDid this help you?
- 2living on osb subfloorDid this help you?
- 3living on painted plywood subfloorDid this help you?
- 4Renting an electric floor scraper to remove the old linoleumDid this help you?
- 5Laying LVP directly over the old linoleum if it appears levelDid this help you?
- 6Installing underlayment and new flooring directly over the existing floorsDid this help you?
- 7Ripping out the old floating floors and hauling them away for disposalDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Does the wood underneath look like it’s in good enough condition for that?”source ↗
“Does that carpet gripper do damage to the hardwood that would make it not worth my time?”source ↗
“I was just worried about starting the process and finding the wood is actually sub flooring or not in good enough condition.”source ↗
“I'm thinking of tearing it up soon, any input? Should I leave the carpet?”source ↗
“Going to lay flooring down, but don’t want to do all the work of taking up old linoleum flooring.”source ↗
“How much advantage would there be to ripping out the old floors vs. installing over them?”source ↗
“You will regret not taking it up.”source ↗
“Would it mess up the LVP in the long run? Or what are the regrets”source ↗
“How can I level it? Do I forcibly have to take it up?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 26How to get old unknown stains out of a rental carpet cheap
- 2Do I really need to self level my floor?
- 14How to tell if uneven flooring panels are defective
- 2Do I need to tear out the whole floor after a toilet leak?