Had a stair runner job in Portland where the old padding was basically dust

I was pulling up the old carpet on a set of stairs in a 1920s house, and the padding just crumbled into powder. It was like working with brown sugar. The homeowner said it had been down for over 30 years. I had to vacuum every single step twice before I could even think about laying the new stuff. It added a solid hour and a half to the job. What's the oldest padding you've ever run into, and how do you handle it without making a huge mess?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_elizabeth17h ago

Sounds like you were basically an archeologist for a minute there.

murray.grace15h ago

Totally, I read a thing about that once.