Cats trashed my basement so I did some remodeling

[Jarick]

TL/DR: I'm ripping out all the carpet in my basement and putting in vinyl plank flooring. Any tips/advice would be appreciated!

Long version:

We adopted a cat a little over a year ago (~5 year old male), and he's been fun. A little adjustment period with the dog and kids, but eventually he settled in. Then my in-laws moved last summer, and asked us to house sit their cat (~18 year old male) for a few months. That turned into us keeping the cat of course.

Unfortunately, the cats have completely trashed my basement carpet. I've tried several litter boxes with several different types of litter, but they keep peeing and pooping all over the carpet. Our finished basement used to be a play area for the kids and a home workout space (Peloton and some weights/yoga). But anything on the ground inevitably gets peed on and tossed out.

Every week I spend an hour or two cleaning out all the litter boxes and cleaning all the carpets (I've got a regular carpet cleaner machine and a small upholstery one for furniture and tight spaces). Doesn't seem to matter as within a couple days they start trashing the carpet again.

So this weekend I decided I was done with this game and that I was going to rip up the carpet and put in vinyl plank flooring. Never done any of it before but I have YouTube and it doesn't look impossible. I ripped up the first section and...

Just a wave of death scent hits me. Despite cleaning the carpets religiously for hours every week, both the carpet and pad underneath were toast. After a couple strips were pulled up, the smell was so bad we had to clear out of the basement and put on some of those paper masks we had to wear for a while (which surprisingly worked to cut the smell).

I'm halfway through ripping up the carpet, and will get the rest of it done over the next couple days. Finish doing prep work on the concrete (wash, disinfect, patch, level) and then pick up the flooring and try to get that installed over the next week or two. My father in law is extremely handy and has way more power tools than I do (none), so will get some help with cutting/ripping planks. Otherwise it seems relatively straightforward.

The other upside is that my teenage son is actually really excited about the project and was working really hard helping me out. I can't get him to ever do homework or anything productive in the house, but he seems to love doing any kind of physical jobs. I know most parents don't aspire for their kids to work construction or manual labor, but I'm 99% sure that's going to be his path. And it's fun to see him light up going to the hardware store and all.

I sure as hell hope that after ~ $2000+ worth of flooring and materials, and a couple weeks of part time work, these cats don't continue to destroy the basement. It would be great to actually be able to use the space again!

 

[norminal]

Then my in-laws moved last summer, and asked us to house sit their cat (~18 year old male) for a few months.

Cats are great. I’ve had dozens and never had a problem with urine. With that said, bringing another adult male into your cat’s territory (basically its den) was likely the culprit.

 

[the-trooper]

most parents don't aspire for their kids to work construction or manual labor, but I'm 99% sure that's going to be his path.

Most children who are plumbers, carpenters, electricians... thoughts about their parents aspirations:

 

[Gearzilla]

Are you sure it wasn’t the Cat Cortex?

 

[Jarick]

Cats are great. I’ve had dozens and never had a problem with urine. With that said, bringing another adult male into your cat’s territory (basically its den) was likely the culprit.

I think that's a big part of it. But the previous owners had a cat and I have to think there was some residual smell, because it's almost exclusively in the basement. There were a handful of incidents up in the rest of the house but nothing for months as they have gotten kind of used to each other. This was happening (to a much lesser degree) before we got the second cat.

My hope is, getting rid of all the carpet and padding, cleaning everything extensively, and then putting down waterproof flooring that's super easy to clean and sanitize will remove the scent association, and then they each have their own litterbox which is frequently cleaned and weekly changed.

 

[norminal]

My hope is, getting rid of all the carpet and padding, cleaning everything extensively, and then putting down waterproof flooring that's super easy to clean and sanitize will remove the scent association, and then they each have their own litterbox which is frequently cleaned and weekly changed.

I would wash the concrete down with mutator acid before putting anything over that floor. Get it nice and sealed and you should be good to go.

 

[TSJMajesty]

TL/DR: I'm ripping out all the carpet in my basement and putting in vinyl plank flooring. Any tips/advice would be appreciated!

Long version:

We adopted a cat a little over a year ago (~5 year old male), and he's been fun. A little adjustment period with the dog and kids, but eventually he settled in. Then my in-laws moved last summer, and asked us to house sit their cat (~18 year old male) for a few months. That turned into us keeping the cat of course.

Unfortunately, the cats have completely trashed my basement carpet. I've tried several litter boxes with several different types of litter, but they keep peeing and pooping all over the carpet. Our finished basement used to be a play area for the kids and a home workout space (Peloton and some weights/yoga). But anything on the ground inevitably gets peed on and tossed out.

Every week I spend an hour or two cleaning out all the litter boxes and cleaning all the carpets (I've got a regular carpet cleaner machine and a small upholstery one for furniture and tight spaces). Doesn't seem to matter as within a couple days they start trashing the carpet again.

So this weekend I decided I was done with this game and that I was going to rip up the carpet and put in vinyl plank flooring. Never done any of it before but I have YouTube and it doesn't look impossible. I ripped up the first section and...

Just a wave of death scent hits me. Despite cleaning the carpets religiously for hours every week, both the carpet and pad underneath were toast. After a couple strips were pulled up, the smell was so bad we had to clear out of the basement and put on some of those paper masks we had to wear for a while (which surprisingly worked to cut the smell).

I'm halfway through ripping up the carpet, and will get the rest of it done over the next couple days. Finish doing prep work on the concrete (wash, disinfect, patch, level) and then pick up the flooring and try to get that installed over the next week or two. My father in law is extremely handy and has way more power tools than I do (none), so will get some help with cutting/ripping planks. Otherwise it seems relatively straightforward.

The other upside is that my teenage son is actually really excited about the project and was working really hard helping me out. I can't get him to ever do homework or anything productive in the house, but he seems to love doing any kind of physical jobs. I know most parents don't aspire for their kids to work construction or manual labor, but I'm 99% sure that's going to be his path. And it's fun to see him light up going to the hardware store and all.

I sure as hell hope that after ~ $2000+ worth of flooring and materials, and a couple weeks of part time work, these cats don't continue to destroy the basement. It would be great to actually be able to use the space again!

Sounds like you've got cats that are trying to exert their dominance over each other. And 18 years old is OLD, so he won't be around much longer.

As for your son, I know 2 27yo's who are already making 80-90K in the trades. Nothing wrong with going that route. But if he's serious, make sure he understands he will need to steer his own path eventually towards management, since you can only do the physical work for a few decades, work towards companies that offer good benefits (hard at first, but if he applies himself, it won't be a problem), or take his career into the direction of having his own business. All those are down the road a ways, but still.

 

[Jarick]

Sounds like you've got cats that are trying to exert their dominance over each other. And 18 years old is OLD, so he won't be around much longer.

As for your son, I know 2 27yo's who are already making 80-90K in the trades. Nothing wrong with going that route. But if he's serious, make sure he understands he will need to steer his own path eventually towards management, since you can only do the physical work for a few decades, work towards companies that offer good benefits (hard at first, but if he applies himself, it won't be a problem), or take his career into the direction of having his own business. All those are down the road a ways, but still.

Yeah the cat at 18 likely won't be around for too long. He was originally my wife's cat long before we met but she was living in rentals and couldn't keep him, so the parents took him in (along with a couple others that their kids adopted but couldn't keep). All the others are gone at this point, and since they just moved to a new place they didn't want to deal with cats anymore.

My son is pretty bright in testing but has ASD/ADHD and no motivation at school. He's got about a D average across classes and just started into some special education to help keep his grades above failing. When he applies himself, he can do very well, things like coding and math and what not (traditional ASD/Aspergers). But mostly he dislikes school.

This fall, he's going into high school and unlike when I was in school, they actually promote trade work. They just built a full auto repair shop in the school (with lifts and everything), and he's really interested in cars, so signed up for all the intro to engine repair classes and all that. He and his friends are all similar, kids that test at a high level but fail classes without support, and they are all really into doing things with their hands.

Everything points to a path in the trades for him at this point, but we'll see where he lands. He's generally been a pretty frugal kid too so if he stays away from credit cards and high car payments, he'll do just fine.

 

[the swede]

Our cat never pees or pooped inside. Threw him in a sandbox the first day he arrived and didn’t let him leave until he peed there haha!

About outside cats…

They need a tiny bit of carpet or rug to puke on. I think it’s smart to remove all rugs and carpets from the floors and deliberately leave just one small (call it the puke rug) bit for the cat bastard.

Oh… btw, the weird thing. Removing everything makes them puke half melted voles on your bed cover… so there’s a catch 22 about it all.

I’ve given up.

But I’ve frightened and threatened our cat enough so he never tries to feed the kids anymore, and he knows I will take his catch if I see it. So he always eat his victims just inside the latch and has learned to stay out after, because he knows how angry I get when I see the little paws/heads/gall bladder on the shoe rug in the basement. Bastard fucker…

It’s been a struggle with that idiot… but mostly he pukes after “accidentally” trying to eat a whole water vole. Never learns. That mostly happens a few times during spring. Seems like he can’t remember that voles are not good…

 

[la szum]

Why I don't have cats unless they can go outside and make that spot under the deck their litter box!

 

[mavrick102000]

Are you going to float the vinyl plank or use some sort of mastic/adhesive?

If the latter, make sure you have good ventilation and a respirator, M95 ain't going to cut it.

Also stretch out, you'll be there for a bit.

And the last thing flexible, kneepads with good padding inside. Test them out at your local home improvement store, with the type of pants you'll be wearing. They can bind up and get uncomfortable behind the knee after a while.

I installed floating hardwood floors at our last house. I joke with my wife that it may have seemed less expensive to have me do it, but cost us 2 knee surgeries...LOL.

Honestly probably only one, the other was due to an injury out hiking/climbing.

 

[Jarick]

Are you going to float the vinyl plank or use some sort of mastic/adhesive?

If the latter, make sure you have good ventilation and a respirator, M95 ain't going to cut it.

Also stretch out, you'll be there for a bit.

And the last thing flexible, kneepads with good padding inside. Test them out at your local home improvement store, with the type of pants you'll be wearing. They can bind up and get uncomfortable behind the knee after a while.

I installed floating hardwood floors at our last house. I joke with my wife that it may have seemed less expensive to have me do it, but cost us 2 knee surgeries...LOL.

Honestly probably only one, the other was due to an injury out hiking/climbing.

Definitely going to float over the concrete floor, although I'm unsure if I'm going to do an underlayment or not. I did pick up some kneepads as I figured I'd be on the ground a lot.

So far I have all the carpet and padding pulled up, bagged up, and outside. Amazing how much fresher the basement smells without it, and the cats properly using the litter boxes again. Also have about half the basement junk boxed up and moved out.

Next steps:

1. Finish boxing up all the small stuff and move out of the basement. That will temporarily include all the small stuff in my home office / music space.
2. Move the big furniture into my basement office so I have the entire main basement area cleared out. Really hoping I don't have to move anything big up or down stairs.
3. Finish scraping the glue from the pad off the carpet. This hasn't been too bad as I got a scraper on a 3 foot pole and they only put down a few thin lines.
4. Check the floor to make sure it's level. I got a 4 foot level beam and have spot checked several areas and so far so good. Really hope I don't have to do extensive leveling of gaps.
5. Pull the baseboards off the walls. Although I got a trim puller tool, I found they were nailed in down at an angle so they are really hard to pull off.
6. Patch up all the small nail holes around the edges where the tack strips pulled up. I got some ready mixed stuff and this will be a good job for my kid while I'm pulling boards elsewhere.

Then we'll be onto the installation, which hopefully isn't too tricky. My father in law will help with the board ripping which will be nice. I'm hoping to get the majority of the work done until I need to get at areas which require a lot of cutting. He's got a lot of power tools (I have none) so that will be key. After that, will need to install transitions in a few spots, reinstall the baseboards, and then we should be good!

After that, I'll think about re-doing my office/music space. It has linoleum floors and I could see replacing with vinyl plank (maybe even just putting on top of it if it's a nightmare to remove).

 

[mavrick102000]

Definitely going to float over the concrete floor, although I'm unsure if I'm going to do an underlayment or not. I did pick up some kneepads as I figured I'd be on the ground a lot.

So far I have all the carpet and padding pulled up, bagged up, and outside. Amazing how much fresher the basement smells without it, and the cats properly using the litter boxes again. Also have about half the basement junk boxed up and moved out.

Next steps:

1. Finish boxing up all the small stuff and move out of the basement. That will temporarily include all the small stuff in my home office / music space.
2. Move the big furniture into my basement office so I have the entire main basement area cleared out. Really hoping I don't have to move anything big up or down stairs.
3. Finish scraping the glue from the pad off the carpet. This hasn't been too bad as I got a scraper on a 3 foot pole and they only put down a few thin lines.
4. Check the floor to make sure it's level. I got a 4 foot level beam and have spot checked several areas and so far so good. Really hope I don't have to do extensive leveling of gaps.
5. Pull the baseboards off the walls. Although I got a trim puller tool, I found they were nailed in down at an angle so they are really hard to pull off.
6. Patch up all the small nail holes around the edges where the tack strips pulled up. I got some ready mixed stuff and this will be a good job for my kid while I'm pulling boards elsewhere.

Then we'll be onto the installation, which hopefully isn't too tricky. My father in law will help with the board ripping which will be nice. I'm hoping to get the majority of the work done until I need to get at areas which require a lot of cutting. He's got a lot of power tools (I have none) so that will be key. After that, will need to install transitions in a few spots, reinstall the baseboards, and then we should be good!

After that, I'll think about re-doing my office/music space. It has linoleum floors and I could see replacing with vinyl plank (maybe even just putting on top of it if it's a nightmare to remove).

Go with the underlayment as a vapor barrier and some padding to deaden the sound.

Get the thickest padding you can trust me it'll deaden the footsteps while walking and provide some cushion to a fairly hard surface.

 

[Jarick]

Go with the underlayment as a vapor barrier and some padding to deaden the sound.

Get the thickest padding you can trust me it'll deaden the footsteps while walking and provide some cushion to a fairly hard surface.

Is that something you want to add even if the stuff has an integrated underlayment/acoustic panel?

Here's what I'm using: Lifeproof

 

[Jarick]

Of course, nothing can ever be easy. The ASSHOLES who installed the baseboard trim used framing nails into the studs. For fucking baseboard trim.

So in order to get the boards out, I basically had to destroy the drywall in several areas. Which means I now get to spend several extra days patching and painting.

Just awesome.

 

[la szum]

I feel for ya.

Nothing goes as planned on any house redo. What's that 50% more time and 50% more money than you planned?

 

[mavrick102000]

Of course, nothing can ever be easy. The a******s who installed the baseboard trim used framing nails into the studs. For f*****g baseboard trim.

So in order to get the boards out, I basically had to destroy the drywall in several areas. Which means I now get to spend several extra days patching and painting.

Just awesome.

Yeah it takes a wide tool and soft touch, even then I had a few spots to repair in the house. I replaced all of the short builder quality moulding with taller 4" base boards, the painting was the biggest pain, well and the cuts for angles , several areas had multiple compound angles, that's fun learning the first time.

 

[Jarick]

Update: new floors are in!

After the debacle of the baseboards, I had to repair drywall in half a dozen areas. For those I cut out the damaged area into a rectangle, then used drywall repair clips (or studs if available) to secure a new section of drywall. Some tape and mud and sanding and it's acceptably better.

This weekend, we put in the underlayment and the flooring. My father in law is really good at house projects and has power tools, so he did the measuring and cutting and I did the installation. Very happy with how it came out, no major gaps or issues, and it looks and feels great.

There were a couple sections which were really tricky to work around. There's a closet and stairs at 45 degree angles that required some extra measurements and funky cuts. And there was also a wall which wasn't square and required some extra fussing. But we got those done.

Still a week or so left on the project though. With the repairs, I decided to re-paint the room as we hadn't touched it since moving in and I'd rather put in colors I like compared to the blah pinkish grey. I got some samples and now need full gallons mixed up. There's also a couple sections that need some extra patching and sanding. Then I need to clean up the baseboards (fill nail hole tear out, re-glue one, and sand a bit, and re-paint) and re-attach those. And finally I need to figure out how to clean up the thresholds/transitions.

Oh, then I need to wall mount the TV, put the furniture back in, and sort through all the crap I removed. I don't want to fill the room back up with too much junk.

Here's the current state, along with the funky closet and one of the guilty parties:

 

[Jarick]

Got paint picked out and started working on the baseboards, plus doing some more patching before painting.

And now another mini project, I got some LED bulbs to replace fluorescents (four footer T12), but they don't work in the existing ballasts. After some research, it appears I can just re-wire it to bypass them completely, which should be a fairly simple job.

One of the cats has crapped on the floor twice now, so that problem still exists, but at least now I can clean and sanitize it quickly and completely.

 

[Jarick]

Here's the finished project:

As usual, the project ended up getting to be more complicated than expected, but not terrible overall. I learned a lot as one does.

Here's what I ended up doing:

• Move all the furniture and other stuff out of the basement
• Cut the old carpet and pad into strips, roll up and stuff into trash bags, toss outside
• Rip out the old thresholds and tack strips, pull any remaining nails, then patch the concrete
• Pull off the old baseboards, which ended up damaging the drywall in several places due to aggressive installation
• Patch and repair all the drywall damage
• Remove the old nails from the baseboards, patch with wood filler, and repaint
• Relocate some things that were mounted to the wall into our utility room, then patch up the holes
• Scrape all the remaining glue and pad residue off the floor and wash the concrete
• Install the underlayment to add some cushion, sound absorption, and moisture resistance
• Install the vinyl plank flooring (took a full weekend)
• Rewire flourescent ballasts for bypass, install LED bulbs, and install new light covers
• Pick out new paint for the walls, mask off all the trim and edges, then paint
• Nail the baseboards back into the walls, fill gaps with caulking, and touch up nail holes
• Make a new baseboard in one area where the old one broke (tricky as I don't have many tools)
• Repaint along the edges to cover up transition to baseboards

Actually not quite done, as I still have to finishing painting and putting the baseboards back up on another wall and the closet, but I wanted to get the main area done so I could start putting furniture back into the space. Next up I need to clean out the utility room to add some shelving in there so we don't end up dumping all our stuff back into the basement.

Also got a new TV stand (cat trashed the old one) and a pad for the Peloton that hopefully we'll start using again.

Upside: no more cat smell at all! Even if I go in the back corner where it was really bad, and even had lingering smell after putting in the floors (but before painting and installing the baseboards). The cats have only peed a couple times on the new floor, compared with basically daily beforehand. And cleanup is super fast and easy now.