It's possible they can sand the floor stain out, but hard to tell until you try. Get a palm sander and use some 100 grit sandpaper in it and see how long it takes to get a small area of the black off. Then make your decision based on those results. I personally think it will come up. You can also try stripping the floor and/or bleaching the stain before you sand it; that will improve the results. A lot of people paint their floors, but if you do that, use a good quality porch paint and then put scratch guard covers on the base of your kitchen chair legs. No one can tell you the answer to your first question before you take up the carpet. Most likely not, that house looks fairly new, but people put all sorts of layers on top of layers in older homes.

Remove it all and install the LVP. Why leave wood in a kitchen and have vinyl everywhere else. it is bass akwards. With everything gone, there is no need to lay plywood.

Thank you. She wants LVP everywhere on the first floor. We had a TERRIBLE carpet salesman tell us that she would have to lay plywood where the hardwood was taken up (kitchen). He then proceeded to tell us how expensive plywood is right now (we know that). We are praying that when the hardwood is brought up, there is no damage to the floors and we can proceed with LVP. This is a nice home that has been completely neglected by the previous owner. So much work and money to bring it up to speed!

First of all, I've taken carpet out of many areas where there were original hardwood floors underneath them. A hardwood floor is not structurally worse than plywood; in fact it is better quality wood and therefore structurally better. So, if I were going to do LVP throughout the home, and I was worried about the subfloor (the plywood part), I would pull the carpet up first to see what is under it. If there is structurally sound plywood under the carpet then you can make your decision from there about the hardwood. You could always raise the carpeted area to the level of the hardwood and do the LVP then, which could potentially save you money, depending on the size of each room.. Or, you can look for a reducer (strip that connects two different kinds of flooring), but that probably won't be your first preference because it will create a lip and looks old fashioned. Second, in my area (midwest) the market for good used carpeting and any hardwood flooring is so hot that pre-pandemic I advertised an entire second floor of carpeting, in good used condition (no stains, but used) on craigslist and within 24 hours it was gone. People came and took it all, padding and everything. Same with hardwood - family members took theirs out, replaced it with LVP, and sold the used hardwood at an overall profit. It is not hard to take carpet out; hardwood can be trickier depending on how it was put down. Seriously, I'm a 50 year old woman and with a claw hammer and some gloves I could get that carpet up in an 6 hour day, pad and all. Two preteens could take it up in half that time. Now if the subfloor is concrete (no basement), then you may have to scrape the glue off when you remove the padding, but even then glue is usually just in targeted lines, not evenly spread all over, so there is not much to get up.

The carpet is trashed and will have to be thrown away. This family had 5 children and everything in the entire house is trashed. Broken window from hockey puck, needs all new HVAC, all walls need painted, the water shut off valve in the basement is sheet rocked into the wall! Countertops are peeling off, they have to put a bath fitter to salvage the tub, basically a complete gut job. Everything is broken. Everything. Nothing has ever been taken care of or maintained.

Will pray that when the hard wood floors come up and carpet is out - everything will be ok to go ahead and lay LVP. I don't know if they will be that lucky though.

Oh no! Hopefully no urine smells, those are very hard to get out of subfloors. That explains the damaged hardwood floor. You will know so much more when everything is out - good luck!

Thank you so much Teresa. It's our daughter and her new fiance's first home. No pets - thank God! Because of the terrible market, they had slim pickings. At least this home, once finished will be a nice home for them. A lot of sweat equity coming! My husband and I just went through a complete remodel of our home and they asked for my help on the flooring. Just the type, and how to install and they will handle the rest! The home looks so nice from the outside!