Tried to stretch a carpet in a 100 year old house in Philly and the tack strip ripped clean off the floor

I was installing a nice broadloom in this old row home in South Philly last Tuesday. The floor was wood but it had been painted over like a hundred times. I nailed down my tack strip like normal, started stretching, and the whole strip came flying off with a bunch of old paint and wood chips. I stood there for a second thinking I broke something. Ended up having to drill pilot holes and use concrete screws instead of just nails to hold the strip down. That took me an extra 45 minutes and I had to run to Home Depot for the screws. The carpet itself went down fine after that but man what a headache. Does anyone else run into weird floor conditions with old houses or is it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

paige4271mo ago

Tack strip ripped clean off the floor" - sounds like my last relationship, just fell apart with no warning.

the_jason1mo ago

Hold up, wait. Did you say it ripped clean off? Like the whole strip just let go at once? That's actually kind of wild, I've never seen that happen before. Usually those things are nailed down so tight you fight them for an hour to get them up. Your relationship comparison is pretty spot on though, sometimes things just snap out of nowhere. I hope the flooring situation is at least fixable without too much of a headache.

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caleb_stone1mo agoTop Commenter

Yeah man, that "ripped clean off" part is brutal, hope the floor fix goes smoother than expected.