Houses from the early 1900s often have oak strip flooring under wall-to-wall carpet. We lift a corner and look before you decide to cover it again.
A wide main flight with a turn and a landing needs a runner cut to the pattern, centred by hand, with the repeat matched step to step.
Century-old plank subfloors move. We replace tired tack strip, screw down squeaks, and flatten the low spots before new carpet goes over them.
A formal flight deserves a runner that looks made for it, not trimmed to fit. We centre the runner by hand, match the pattern repeat from step to step, and hold the same reveal of wood on both sides all the way up. Turns and winders get cut and bound individually. Wool wears well on a main flight and holds its shape under daily traffic. Tell us the width you want showing and we work the layout backwards from that.
The shaded area is Chevy Chase as OpenStreetMap draws it. We work across it and well past the edges, but a boundary on a map is not a promise about your driveway. Access, parking, elevator rules and the size of the job all count. Send us the address with the rooms you want looked at and we will tell you straight away whether we can get there and when. Map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors.
Chevy Chase grew as a planned suburb in the early twentieth century, and a lot of that housing stock is still standing and still lived in. In houses of that age the wall-to-wall carpet is rarely the original floor. Underneath it there is often oak strip flooring, face-nailed or blind-nailed, sitting on plank subfloor.
So we start with a look. We lift a corner in a closet or behind a door and see what is there. Sometimes the wood is worn thin or stained past saving and carpet is the right answer. Sometimes it only needs a sand and a finish, and hardwood floor refinishing is the cheaper, better job. You should get to make that call with the floor in front of you.
The main flight in these houses tends to be wide with a turn and a landing. That is a runner staircase. We measure each tread, riser and nosing, centre the runner by hand, and match the pattern repeat step to step so the eye reads one continuous line. Turns and winders get cut and bound on their own. Stair runner installation covers the finished edges and the waterfall versus cap decision.
Below the surface, old houses ask for prep. Tack strip that has been nailed and pulled for decades stops holding. Plank subfloors shrink and squeak. We screw down the loose boards, replace the strip, flatten the low spots, then stretch the carpet properly with a power stretcher so it stays tight through a Maryland winter.
Wool suits these interiors, holds a pattern well, and takes traffic on a main flight. It also costs more per yard than synthetic, and we will say so.
For an early figure use the carpet and flooring cost calculator. The real number follows a measure at your house, and that costs you nothing.
Look first, decide second. We pull back a corner and check the wear layer and any water damage. Sound oak is usually worth sanding, and you can still carpet the bedrooms and the stairs for warmth and quiet.
Yes. We measure both finished heights, pick a transition strip that suits the gap, and check your door clearance before we start. Get that wrong and a door drags. We check it up front.
Yes. Tell us which pieces stay put, like a piano or a heavy cabinet, and we sequence the room around them. We move ordinary furniture ourselves and put it back.