Even if you've never attempted a DIY-do-it-yourself---project, you can start by removing your old carpet to make way for new flooring. You have a few things to do to prepare for the project first.
Check with the Professional Who'll Install Your New Flooring
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'll need the area clean and free from furniture or other items. Move everything to another room. Also, take off any interior doors, including closet doors and those for room entrance.
Put on your PPE (personal protective equipment such as gloves) before you start any of the actual carpet removal.
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.
When the Stairs Have Carpeting
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.
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.
In most cases, you'll get the padding with one or two staples in it. However, the vast majority of the staples are still in the floor with little tufts of padding attached. Before you start removing the staples, make sure you've cut the padding pieces into easy to remove sections.
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.
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 Strips
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.
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!
Check with the Professional Who'll Install Your New Flooring
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'll need the area clean and free from furniture or other items. Move everything to another room. Also, take off any interior doors, including closet doors and those for room entrance.
Put on your PPE (personal protective equipment such as gloves) before you start any of the actual carpet removal.
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.
When the Stairs Have Carpeting
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.
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.
In most cases, you'll get the padding with one or two staples in it. However, the vast majority of the staples are still in the floor with little tufts of padding attached. Before you start removing the staples, make sure you've cut the padding pieces into easy to remove sections.
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.
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 Strips
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.
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:
Bestcarpetvalue.com sells carpeting and flooring and provided ideas for this article. Best Carpet Value is an online wholesale provider of carpet and carpet tile. Best Carpet Value didn't verify the accuracy of this article.
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