If you've always thought you could do many of the home maintenance jobs yourself, but were afraid to try, you might begin by taking out an old carpet to prep the area for professionals to lay new flooring. Starting the project requires some forethought and preparation before you get to the fun part of removing the carpet.
Check with the Professional Who'll Install Your New Flooring
If you've already received an itemized quote from the installer, you might be able to see how much you save by tearing out your old carpeting. Otherwise, ask for two estimates, one where you do the removal of the old carpet and one where they do it. Most of the work to remove old carpet isn't difficult, but is time consuming and time means money. You'll often save quite a bit by doing it yourself.
Gather the Tools You'll Need
Here are necessary tools for carpet removal: safety glasses, dust mask, sturdy shoes, heavy work gloves, knee pads, utility knife, locking pliers, long-handled scraper, hammer and pry bar. Have a broom or shop vac handy for clean-up purposes.
Area Prep
You can't remove a carpet if all the furniture is on top of it, so move everything to another room. Take off the doors from closets or any inner doors leading to the outside.
Put on your PPE (personal protective equipment such as gloves) before you start any of the actual carpet removal.
Out Goes the Old Carpeting
Now you're ready to start the action, the job you wanted to do. Begin in any corner of the room armed with your locking pliers. Grasp the corner of the carpet with the pliers and lift. When you look underneath the edge, you should be able to determine whether the original installers glued down the carpet or used staples. In many cases, you'll find a tack strip under the carpeting. Just attach the pliers to the area you removed and pull to remove the tack strip for the length of one wall.
Fold about three feet of carpet over and cut it into small strips with your utility knife, for ease of handling. Continue to pull and slice the carpeting into strips until you have removed all sides from the tack strip. Then, roll up the carpet and take it out of the room.
If you lifted and discovered there were no nails, but glue holding the carpet to the floor, you need another piece of equipment, a steam cleaner. You'll use the steam cleaner to heat the glue and moisten the carpet, making it easier to remove.
Dealing with Stairs
Sometimes, there are carpeted stairs to wrangle. You'll need to begin at the top if you have them. Many installers use a metal strip at the top to hold the carpeting in place. To remove that strip, simply use the pry bar. If there's no metal strip, cut the carpet on the top riser to start the process.
Once cut, you can grab the carpeting and pull. If it's one continuous piece, you'll need to cut it as you go to keep the job manageable. Otherwise, remove the pieces wrapped around each individual riser and tread.
Tackling the Carpet Pad
Once you have successfully removed the old carpet, you must deal with the carpet pad. Generally the seams of the padding are tacked to the floor with staples. Grip any seam and start pulling the carpet pad loose from the floor.
You're halfway done once you get rid of the carpeting, but you still have the padding left. In most cases, installers tacked down the padding at the seams using staples. Grab any piece of padding at the seam and pull. It should come loose from the floor.
You can use the pry bar to scrape the floor if you're going to have it professionally sanded and finished later. If not, you might want to forgo the pry bar and use the pliers to remove the remaining staples.
While using a pry bar to remove the staples is easiest, it can mar your floors. Unless you're getting them refinished afterward, use your pliers to wiggle the staples from the floor.
If you've found the padding glued to the floor, which is normally the case if the carpeting is on concrete, you'll need to scrape the floor. Use your long-handled scraper to do this. It removes not only the little pieces of carpet pad stuck to the floor but also the glue too.
There are a few rules to govern whether you remove the tack strip or leave it. In most cases, leaving the old tack strip is best. Even if your installer tells you to leave the tack strip, but you find rust or rot, you need to remove it or at least the bad sections. Any rust can stain your new carpet and bleed through to the top.
If the tack strip is too close to the baseboard, you'll need to remove it. The professional installer must have a minimum 1/4" wide gap to secure the carpet edge flush with the baseboard.
You'll also want to remove the tack strip if you find it's closer than " to the wall. Installers require this wide of a gap to make sure the carpet is flush against the baseboard. Of course, if you're not recarpeting but installing new flooring or refinishing your hardwood floor beneath old carpet, pull off those tack strips.
How to Remove the Tack Strip
If you've thought removing the carpet or the pad was hard, prepare for the job of removing the tack strips. It's probably the hardest part of the task. There are hundreds of sharp pointy tacks pointed toward you and what you'll think is even more holding it to the floor. Just follow the same steps for each section of tack strip until you've completed the entire room.
You'll need a large piece of cardboard if you want to protect the floor. Place the cardboard as a buffer between the back of the pry bar and the floor. Push the pry bar under the tack strip. You'll probably need the help of your hammer to make it go under far enough. Simply get the pry bar in place and tap the back with the hammer so it goes under far enough to get leverage. Pull back the handle of the bar to lift the strip from the floor. If there are any breaks in the tack strip, you probably left a nail or two in the floor. Examine it carefully and take out any nails with your pliers.
You're Not Done Yet, It's Time to Clean
Make do with a broom and dustpan or rent a heavy-duty shop vacuum to clean up any nails, staples or other debris.
Survey the area. It feels good to do this yourself, doesn't it? Congratulations. Now you can install the flooring of your choice including carpet tiles, carpet, or maybe hardwoods.
Check with the Professional Who'll Install Your New Flooring
If you've already received an itemized quote from the installer, you might be able to see how much you save by tearing out your old carpeting. Otherwise, ask for two estimates, one where you do the removal of the old carpet and one where they do it. Most of the work to remove old carpet isn't difficult, but is time consuming and time means money. You'll often save quite a bit by doing it yourself.
Gather the Tools You'll Need
Here are necessary tools for carpet removal: safety glasses, dust mask, sturdy shoes, heavy work gloves, knee pads, utility knife, locking pliers, long-handled scraper, hammer and pry bar. Have a broom or shop vac handy for clean-up purposes.
Area Prep
You can't remove a carpet if all the furniture is on top of it, so move everything to another room. Take off the doors from closets or any inner doors leading to the outside.
Put on your PPE (personal protective equipment such as gloves) before you start any of the actual carpet removal.
Out Goes the Old Carpeting
Now you're ready to start the action, the job you wanted to do. Begin in any corner of the room armed with your locking pliers. Grasp the corner of the carpet with the pliers and lift. When you look underneath the edge, you should be able to determine whether the original installers glued down the carpet or used staples. In many cases, you'll find a tack strip under the carpeting. Just attach the pliers to the area you removed and pull to remove the tack strip for the length of one wall.
Fold about three feet of carpet over and cut it into small strips with your utility knife, for ease of handling. Continue to pull and slice the carpeting into strips until you have removed all sides from the tack strip. Then, roll up the carpet and take it out of the room.
If you lifted and discovered there were no nails, but glue holding the carpet to the floor, you need another piece of equipment, a steam cleaner. You'll use the steam cleaner to heat the glue and moisten the carpet, making it easier to remove.
Dealing with Stairs
Sometimes, there are carpeted stairs to wrangle. You'll need to begin at the top if you have them. Many installers use a metal strip at the top to hold the carpeting in place. To remove that strip, simply use the pry bar. If there's no metal strip, cut the carpet on the top riser to start the process.
Once cut, you can grab the carpeting and pull. If it's one continuous piece, you'll need to cut it as you go to keep the job manageable. Otherwise, remove the pieces wrapped around each individual riser and tread.
Tackling the Carpet Pad
Once you have successfully removed the old carpet, you must deal with the carpet pad. Generally the seams of the padding are tacked to the floor with staples. Grip any seam and start pulling the carpet pad loose from the floor.
You're halfway done once you get rid of the carpeting, but you still have the padding left. In most cases, installers tacked down the padding at the seams using staples. Grab any piece of padding at the seam and pull. It should come loose from the floor.
You can use the pry bar to scrape the floor if you're going to have it professionally sanded and finished later. If not, you might want to forgo the pry bar and use the pliers to remove the remaining staples.
While using a pry bar to remove the staples is easiest, it can mar your floors. Unless you're getting them refinished afterward, use your pliers to wiggle the staples from the floor.
If you've found the padding glued to the floor, which is normally the case if the carpeting is on concrete, you'll need to scrape the floor. Use your long-handled scraper to do this. It removes not only the little pieces of carpet pad stuck to the floor but also the glue too.
There are a few rules to govern whether you remove the tack strip or leave it. In most cases, leaving the old tack strip is best. Even if your installer tells you to leave the tack strip, but you find rust or rot, you need to remove it or at least the bad sections. Any rust can stain your new carpet and bleed through to the top.
If the tack strip is too close to the baseboard, you'll need to remove it. The professional installer must have a minimum 1/4" wide gap to secure the carpet edge flush with the baseboard.
You'll also want to remove the tack strip if you find it's closer than " to the wall. Installers require this wide of a gap to make sure the carpet is flush against the baseboard. Of course, if you're not recarpeting but installing new flooring or refinishing your hardwood floor beneath old carpet, pull off those tack strips.
How to Remove the Tack Strip
If you've thought removing the carpet or the pad was hard, prepare for the job of removing the tack strips. It's probably the hardest part of the task. There are hundreds of sharp pointy tacks pointed toward you and what you'll think is even more holding it to the floor. Just follow the same steps for each section of tack strip until you've completed the entire room.
You'll need a large piece of cardboard if you want to protect the floor. Place the cardboard as a buffer between the back of the pry bar and the floor. Push the pry bar under the tack strip. You'll probably need the help of your hammer to make it go under far enough. Simply get the pry bar in place and tap the back with the hammer so it goes under far enough to get leverage. Pull back the handle of the bar to lift the strip from the floor. If there are any breaks in the tack strip, you probably left a nail or two in the floor. Examine it carefully and take out any nails with your pliers.
You're Not Done Yet, It's Time to Clean
Make do with a broom and dustpan or rent a heavy-duty shop vacuum to clean up any nails, staples or other debris.
Survey the area. It feels good to do this yourself, doesn't it? Congratulations. Now you can install the flooring of your choice including carpet tiles, carpet, or maybe hardwoods.
About the Author:
Some flooring ideas researched at Best Carpet Value (bestcarpetvalue.com). The writer is not associated with Best Carpet.
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