What is the easiest and most cost effective way to do new floors?

VMI17821053
by VMI17821053

We need to pull up all the carpet in our house. We have concrete floors under the carpet. What is the easiest and most cost effective way to do this update? We have a large dog and five cats so no more carpet!

  5 answers
  • Janice Janice on Jul 16, 2018

    Hi! Your post got cut off a bit. To remove the carpet, cut in 2-3' wide sections and pull away from the walls and tackless that is holding it down. Roll it up into manageable sections to dispose of the carpet and then use pliers to pull up the nails and pry the tack strip up off the flooors. You'll probably want to get some type of concrete patching material to patch any nail holes left around the perimeter and any othe inconsistencies in the concrete. Painting it with garage floor paint may be the most economical way to update, then seal well and perhaps get an area rug to soften up the room a bit.

  • What do you want to replace the carpet with? Easiest and most cost effective is to remove yourself. Not difficult, just dusty and messy. Sometimes getting the tack strips up is a bit of a pain. Then wash the floors well, let dry then seal them if there will be lag time before you install new flooring.


    I still have carpet in part of the house, but I also have some aging pets that do not do well on slick floors so the carpet is staying until they expire. I have replaced part of the house with hardwood, as that is my preferred flooring.


    If you have kids and pets, sheet vinyl, plank vinyl, linoleum all are easy to clean and maintain. Ceramic is nice, but go with heated floors if you live where it gets cold or snows. Ceramic is hard on your feet and back over time, get gel mats for long standing areas. Hardwood, if you want a timeless classic. Just choose the best quality within your budget.

  • VMI17821053 VMI17821053 on Jul 16, 2018

    Thanks! We are planning on doing this ourselves so your ideas really help!

  • Cheryl A Cheryl A on Jul 16, 2018

    laminate flooring has come a long way we have some that looks like wood and it is easy to install and to maintain we purchased it on sale at Home Depot.

  • Removing the flooring yourself should be pretty easy, just messy! If your concrete is clean, VERY smooth and dry, you can install vinyl flooring to your concrete. This is the cheapest type of flooring. But I would imagine that the concrete is not perfect, so your next option would be a cheap laminate flooring. We got ours at Costco on sale and it was great.