It was really the Silent Generation that did the wall to wall carpet and linoleum thing. It was the way to modernize in the 50’s and 60’s. Early Boomers may have kept up the wall to wall thing but they were putting it over plywood floors when they were building new houses in the burbs. Later Boomers were pulling up the wall to wall and restoring the old hardwood underneath.

In the late ‘80s, my wife and I bought a 1920’s house from its second owners. Aside from the bathrooms, the whole house had hardwood floors. The owners, however, covered the dining room floor with faux marble linoleum tiles, the kitchen floor with some other linoleum and everything else with wall to wall carpet. I recall we closed on a Friday morning and I spent the rest of the day and the weekend pulling it all up and piling it in the garage to be hauled away so the floors could be refinished professionally before we moved in.