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.
Talk to the Installer
Whether you're switching to hardwoods or investing in new carpet, talk to your professional installer. Find out if carpet removal is embedded in his estimate for your new flooring. Chances are you will be surprised at the substantial savings for ripping up the old carpet yourself.
Get Your Equipment Together First
In order to do the job correctly and make it as easy as possible, you'll need the right tools. You'll need to have proper clothing, which includes shoes that offer some protection, safety glasses, a dust mask, kneepads and gloves. Of course, there are other tools necessary to do the actual work. These include a long-handled scraper to remove carpet debris stuck to the floor, a hammer, locking pliers, a good utility knife and a pry bar. Once you're finished, you'll have to clean the area so have a broom, shop vac or both readily accessible.
Prepare the Space
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.
At this time, make certain you're wearing the protective clothing. You'll often see it referred to as PPE---personal protective equipment. Heavy work gloves, good sturdy work shoes, safety glasses and a dust mask are extremely important when you're doing this type of work. You'll be protecting both your insides and outsides with the PPE.
Remove Old Carpet
Begin your quest in any corner of the room. Use your pliers to secure and pull a piece away from the floor. This will allow you to find out whether the installers stapled or glued the carpet to the floor. If there's a tack strip holding the carpet, grab the piece and continue to pull until you've lifted the carpet entirely along one wall.
Carpet is cumbersome to move when it's as wide as the room. To avoid that problem, you'll be cutting it in strips as you take it out. Once you've pulled one side from the tack strips, fold over a three-foot section away from one wall, making it easier to cut the backing. Cut the backing so you now have an "easy-to-remove" strips you can roll up and remove. Continue in the same manner until you've finished the carpeting.
In the event your carpet was glued in place, you can use a steam cleaner to wet the carpet and loosen it from the glue.
Dealing with Stairs
If you're removing carpeting from stairs, you'll need to begin at the top of the stairs. Some installers use metal nosing to hold the carpet to the top stair, you can easily pry this off the floor. If there is no nosing, you'll need to cut the carpet at the top with your utility knife.
Grasp the cut end and pull carpet from the stairs. If the carpet is in one piece, slice it into manageable strips as you proceed. Your stairs may have pieces of carpet wrapping around individual treads and risers. Use your pliers and remove the staples.
Take out any staples or tacks after you've remove the carpet and padding.
You can pat yourself on the back for removing the carpet but you're not done yet. You still have the carpet pad left to remove. In most cases, staples hold the pad down at the seams. Here is where your gloves serve you double duty protecting your hands. Grab any edge or seam of the padding and pull.
A few staples will come up with the carpet pad, but the majority will remain in the floor. Take your utility knife and cut the padding into controllable pieces.
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.
There's normally only one way to install carpeting on concrete floors and that's with glue. Sometimes, installers use glue on wood floors too. If that's the case, you'll still have pieces of padding stuck to the floor. The long-handled scraper is your best friend when this occurs. Use it to scrape away any pad remaining on the floor.
Take up the Tack Strip?
Leaving the Tack Strip?
Measure the distance from the baseboards. There must be a " minimum gap if you want your carpet to butt up against the baseboard properly.
Also, the tack strip must come up in order to refinish or install new hardwoods.
How to Remove the Tack Strip
Up until now, most of your work has been ripping, cutting and pulling, this step gets into territory that is more difficult. You'll need your hammer, the pry bar and pliers for the task. Tack strips receive a heavy-duty workout to hold the rug in place and installers use plenty of nails to insure they do that task well. Not only do you have to navigate past the sharp tack edges that hold the carpet, you also have plenty of nails to hold the tack strips to the floor. Repeat each step until you've finished the entire room.
If you need to protect your floor, place a piece of cardboard between the floor and pry bar. Slide your pry bar underneath the end of the strip. Take the hammer and tap the pry bar to loosen stubborn nails. Then pry the tack strip up from the floor. If the tack strip broke into little pieces, some nails are likely still in the floor. Remove them with your pliers.
Tidy Up
You can use your trusty broom and dustpan for clean up or go higher tech, vacuuming the area. If you vacuum, make certain you use a heavy-duty shop vac created for these types of jobs. You'll ruin your home vacuum sweeper if you attempt to use it for this job. If you don't have access to a shop vac, many places have them for rent.
Good job! Now, either call in the pros for your carpet install or try an easy carpet tile install!
Talk to the Installer
Whether you're switching to hardwoods or investing in new carpet, talk to your professional installer. Find out if carpet removal is embedded in his estimate for your new flooring. Chances are you will be surprised at the substantial savings for ripping up the old carpet yourself.
Get Your Equipment Together First
In order to do the job correctly and make it as easy as possible, you'll need the right tools. You'll need to have proper clothing, which includes shoes that offer some protection, safety glasses, a dust mask, kneepads and gloves. Of course, there are other tools necessary to do the actual work. These include a long-handled scraper to remove carpet debris stuck to the floor, a hammer, locking pliers, a good utility knife and a pry bar. Once you're finished, you'll have to clean the area so have a broom, shop vac or both readily accessible.
Prepare the Space
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.
At this time, make certain you're wearing the protective clothing. You'll often see it referred to as PPE---personal protective equipment. Heavy work gloves, good sturdy work shoes, safety glasses and a dust mask are extremely important when you're doing this type of work. You'll be protecting both your insides and outsides with the PPE.
Remove Old Carpet
Begin your quest in any corner of the room. Use your pliers to secure and pull a piece away from the floor. This will allow you to find out whether the installers stapled or glued the carpet to the floor. If there's a tack strip holding the carpet, grab the piece and continue to pull until you've lifted the carpet entirely along one wall.
Carpet is cumbersome to move when it's as wide as the room. To avoid that problem, you'll be cutting it in strips as you take it out. Once you've pulled one side from the tack strips, fold over a three-foot section away from one wall, making it easier to cut the backing. Cut the backing so you now have an "easy-to-remove" strips you can roll up and remove. Continue in the same manner until you've finished the carpeting.
In the event your carpet was glued in place, you can use a steam cleaner to wet the carpet and loosen it from the glue.
Dealing with Stairs
If you're removing carpeting from stairs, you'll need to begin at the top of the stairs. Some installers use metal nosing to hold the carpet to the top stair, you can easily pry this off the floor. If there is no nosing, you'll need to cut the carpet at the top with your utility knife.
Grasp the cut end and pull carpet from the stairs. If the carpet is in one piece, slice it into manageable strips as you proceed. Your stairs may have pieces of carpet wrapping around individual treads and risers. Use your pliers and remove the staples.
Take out any staples or tacks after you've remove the carpet and padding.
You can pat yourself on the back for removing the carpet but you're not done yet. You still have the carpet pad left to remove. In most cases, staples hold the pad down at the seams. Here is where your gloves serve you double duty protecting your hands. Grab any edge or seam of the padding and pull.
A few staples will come up with the carpet pad, but the majority will remain in the floor. Take your utility knife and cut the padding into controllable pieces.
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.
There's normally only one way to install carpeting on concrete floors and that's with glue. Sometimes, installers use glue on wood floors too. If that's the case, you'll still have pieces of padding stuck to the floor. The long-handled scraper is your best friend when this occurs. Use it to scrape away any pad remaining on the floor.
Take up the Tack Strip?
Leaving the Tack Strip?
Measure the distance from the baseboards. There must be a " minimum gap if you want your carpet to butt up against the baseboard properly.
Also, the tack strip must come up in order to refinish or install new hardwoods.
How to Remove the Tack Strip
Up until now, most of your work has been ripping, cutting and pulling, this step gets into territory that is more difficult. You'll need your hammer, the pry bar and pliers for the task. Tack strips receive a heavy-duty workout to hold the rug in place and installers use plenty of nails to insure they do that task well. Not only do you have to navigate past the sharp tack edges that hold the carpet, you also have plenty of nails to hold the tack strips to the floor. Repeat each step until you've finished the entire room.
If you need to protect your floor, place a piece of cardboard between the floor and pry bar. Slide your pry bar underneath the end of the strip. Take the hammer and tap the pry bar to loosen stubborn nails. Then pry the tack strip up from the floor. If the tack strip broke into little pieces, some nails are likely still in the floor. Remove them with your pliers.
Tidy Up
You can use your trusty broom and dustpan for clean up or go higher tech, vacuuming the area. If you vacuum, make certain you use a heavy-duty shop vac created for these types of jobs. You'll ruin your home vacuum sweeper if you attempt to use it for this job. If you don't have access to a shop vac, many places have them for rent.
Good job! Now, either call in the pros for your carpet install or try an easy carpet tile install!
About the Author:
Best Carpet Value provided information on Carpet Tiles and removing carpet. Contact Best Carpet Value for more information on carpeting.
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