How to remove carpet

How to get rid of carpeting

Removing old carpet from a room is a straightforward project you can do in the morning or afternoon on your own, depending on the space size (add some more time if you’re removing carpet padding).

Can I Remove Carpet Myself?

If you take care of the job yourself, you’ll save money and have the opportunity to check the subfloor and fix any issues before the new carpet or flooring is laid.

Steps for Removing Carpet

1. Put on Your Protective Gear

• Protect yourself by wearing gloves and knee pads, as there will be many sharp tacks to watch out for.
• If you’re sensitive to dust particles, wear a face mask while you work to avoid inhaling them.

2. Clear the Space

• Remove any doors that connect the I-beam room to the area to be ripped up.
• Before starting, remove all furniture and obstacles from the floor so you have plenty of space to move around.
• Gently pry off baseboards and shoe moldings with a crowbar if you want to reuse them later. Then, please store them until you’re ready to reinstall them.

3. Detach the Carpet from the Tack Strip

To remove the carpet, detach it from the tack strips around the edge of the room:

• Use a pair of pliers to grab the carpet in a corner, then pull. If it resists, peel it up by hand and keep going.
• Cut a 6-inch square in the corner with a utility knife if it does not come up easily.
• Remove the piece and pick up the carpet with your hands.

3. Cut the Carpet into Strips

• Remove 3 feet of carpet and use a utility knife to cut it along the fold with the backing facing away from you. (It’s easier to work with the rear of the carpet.)
• Then, take the cut pieces and roll them up before using duct tape to secure the rolls.
• Remove the carpet in small sections as you work your way down. If you come across a metal barrier separating the rug from other flooring or carpeting, remove it and leave it alone.
• If there’s a closet in the room, remove the carpet at its entrance.
• Pull up the piece in the closet separately.

4. Pull Up and Roll Carpet

• To securely grasp the carpet, use pliers.
• Pull it toward you to remove it from the sharp tack strip that holds it to the wall along the wall.
• To fix a loose corner of your carpet, tug on the strip next to the wall until all edges are free from tacks.
• Fold the carpet strip up. If you couldn’t cut through the carpet entirely in the previous step, slice it as necessary through the padding.
• Use duct tape to secure the carpet roll, place it in a bag and remove it from the room.
• Continue pulling up the carpet in sections, starting from the tack strips and rolling it as you go.

How to Remove Carpet from Stairs:

• Begin on the stairwell’s top step.
• If there is a metal nosing, pry it up and remove it. Cut the carpet at the top of the top stair riser, if necessary.
• Grab the cut end of the carpet and pull it from the stairs while wearing work gloves.
• Cut off manageable pieces as you remove them if the carpet is in one continuous piece.
• Remove your old flooring by rolling, duct taping, wrapping, and removing it.

5. If Necessary, Remove the Tack Strips

If you’re planning to install a new wall-to-wall carpet, in most cases, you can leave the existing tack strips intact. However, if the tack strips are rusty or otherwise damaged, you’ll need to remove and replace them. Also, remove the tack strips if you’re installing a different type of flooring.

• Use a hammer and paint scraper to create enough space under a tack strip to fit in a prybar.
• Pry up the tack strips carefully.
• Once they’re all pried up, throw them into a heavy-duty trash bag.

Safety Tip: Work gloves are essential when removing tack strips since the tacks are sharp, and the wood strip can break as you pull it up.

6. Remove Carpet Padding

Replace the carpet padding in sections, as you did with the carpet. Even if it appears in good condition, it should be replaced.

Hundreds of staples are used to fix the padding to the subfloor if you have wood subfloors. Some may come loose when you pull up the pad, but most will remain anchored. The cushioning is firmly attached to a concrete subfloor.

• Remove the staples near the walls with pliers.
• A long-handled floor scraper with a sharp blade can quickly remove the staples. Then, using a motion similar to a push-broom, go around the room in circles to cut or pull out the nails with the scraper.
• A carpet staple remover can also be used.
• Use a floor scraper to scrape the remaining padding from the floor after removing carpet padding from the concrete. A commercial adhesive remover or an oscillating power tool may be required for stubborn areas.
• When removing carpet from stairs, use pliers to remove the padding staples.
• Remove the carpet padding and join it with the rest of the carpet.

Tip: Now is a good time to identify and repair loose or squeaky subfloor panels after removing the carpet padding.

Removing Carpet From Hardwood Floors

You can usually spot if hardwood floors are hidden beneath the carpet as you pull it from the first corner. This may influence your decision to replace or refinish your current hardwood flooring.

When you remove the carpet to expose the hardwood floors below, you must take care during the first step. The rug is usually held down with narrow wooden strips called carpet strips that are nailed to the floor. To avoid damaging your hardwood floors, make your initial cut one inch from the wall so it lines up with the carpet strips. Then use pliers to grip the fibers and pull up the section of carpet you’ve cut.

Carpet Removal Tip: Carpet doesn’t run beneath baseboards in most cases, but if you have carpet under your trim, you’ll need to get rid of them first. Learn how to remove baseboards without damaging your walls.

7. Remove Carpet Adhesive

It can adhere to the subfloor when removing carpet padding because it is fastened with adhesive. Use a flat end of the pry bar or a putty knife and push it between the padding and the subfloor to loosen it.

Some adhesives are difficult to remove completely. However, as long as you flatten the subfloor, you can install new flooring.

8. Dispose of the Carpet and Padding

Disposing of old carpeting and padding can be a pain, as many communities have restrictions on what you can put in regular garbage pickups. Heavier and bulkier than most trash, it’s more practical to hire a hauling company that will take care of everything for you.

If you have a lot of carpeting to get rid of, you could either buy or rent a roll-off dumpster. For a flooring removal project, a 10-yard container is usually ideal.

9. Clean the Flooring

The excess adhesive on the subfloor can be removed with a putty knife. Nails left behind from the tack strip can either be hammered down or pulled out.

Remove all clutter from the area to keep track of wires and plug them into the set-up. Clean it out if there’s still stuff around when you’re done! To get rid of dust while wearing a mask, sweep the floor with a broom and clear out corners with the shop vacuum. Mold and mildew can grow underneath carpeting if it is not properly dried.

10. Check and Prepare Your Subfloor

Once the padding is removed, you can inspect your subfloor. This is an essential phase if you want to install new hardwood floors or tile because any problems with the subfloor will be much more difficult to repair once the new flooring is installed.

These are the essential things to search for:

• Rusted tack strips: This might be a stain from a pet or a spilled drink, but it could also indicate a roof leak. If more than one tack strip is rusted, inspect your roof immediately.
• Squeaky subfloor panels: First, identify which floorboards are causing the noise to fix creaking floors. Once you’ve done that, drive some nails into the problem areas to secure the boards and stop the sound.
• Sinking floors: If you’re concerned about your foundation, inspect it before doing any more work.
• Staples: You will probably have several nails left over from your old carpet padding. Use a pair of pliers or a Crowbar to remove them.

How to Unfray and Replace Carpet

If you’re dealing with a little fraying, utilize seam glue to stop the edges from continuing to fray.

If you have a large patch of carpeting that needs to be replaced, you will need more than seam glue. You’ll need to get some other carpet from another area of your home. To proceed, gather the following items: carpet tape, a piece of paper, some drawing utensils, a utility knife, scissors, a long nail, and a new part of the matching carpet.

• The first step is to cut out the damaged area and remove the as little carpet as possible.
• The carpet is usually laid out in rows and columns. To make things easier, use a long nail to trace around the damage, up the columns, and across the rows. Keep your tracing about 1/2 inch from the edge of the damage.
• Cut along the outline. Take caution here, and be sure to only cut into the carpet, not the padding underneath.
• Trace the damaged area’s edges with paper and a pencil, then snip it out using scissors.
• You can get your donor carpet from any area of your house that sees little foot traffic and isn’t exposed to sunlight, such as a closet. Having a paper template will ensure you remove the right amount. You can then use nails around the cut so it’s even.
• Now, we’re not going to leave the donor carpet area barren—you’ll ideally be able to replace that piece of donated carpet with a similar color carpet. But, unfortunately, any distinctions in the shade will be much more difficult to detect here than at the door.
• Place your template on the back of the donor carpet and trace it with a writing utensil. Then, use a utility knife to cut out the shape.
• Last, try fitting the piece. If it’s nice and tight, you’re set. If it overlaps somewhat, don’t worry. It’s a lot easier to remove the carpet than install it again. Cut along your line but don’t cut too much; you don’t want to have to get a second source piece.
• Now, lay the carpet tape down underneath the hole’s edges.
• Make sure it’s flat before putting the patch in place.
• If you want to take it a step further, particularly if you have a high-pile rug, use a little glue to make things stick. But, again, ensure it’s in there; you don’t want to get it on your carpet fibers.
• After gently pressing it down, Use your hands to fluff the fabric and blend everything until it looks brand-new.

Now that you know how to remove carpets, you can renovate the flooring in any room by upgrading to new indoor carpets, luxury vinyl planks, or hardwood.

What Tools Do I Need to Remove Carpet?

To remove the carpet, you’ll need the following safety equipment and tools:

• Protective gloves
• A dust mask
• Knee pads
• Utility knife
• Pliers
• Sharp-bladed floor scraper
• Duct tape
• Flat pry bar

5 Things to Know Before Ripping Up Your Carpeting

1. Removing carpet isn’t as simple as ripping it up and tossing it.

Lincoln notes carpeting is “big, heavy, and bulky,” adding that “just removing it is more difficult than it appears at first.” Carpeting attaches to the floor along the walls’ edges via tack strips, thin strips of wood hidden in hundreds of sharp nails that have enough grip to keep carpeting taut and in place.

You’ll need a lot of strength to pry the carpet from these tacks (it’s best if you get someone else to do it). Once you manage that, you must pry the floor’s tack strips and remove the old carpet pad. Most likely, your carpet pads were either installed with staples or glue; if it was glued down, scrape off as much old glue as possible.

Once you’ve rolled up the old carpeting and removed it from the room, you’ll get an unobstructed view of the subfloor and any surprise damage the carpet might have concealed.

“We’ve seen subfloor problems that had to be addressed before additional carpeting could be installed on many occasions,” Lincon explains his experiences working with Sears Home Services clients. These issues might include a fractured or delaminated subfloor, termite damage, or even the spread of mold from a hidden leak.

2. The right carpet is about more than color.

Browsing carpet samples at your local home improvement store might help you get pointed in the right direction for a new look for your floor, but finding the best carpet for your lifestyle requires more than simply selecting a color and pile height (which refers to the length of the carpet fibers).

Lincoln says that it’s important to select not only the right carpet but also the right pad, which can be a tricky task for non-experts. Homeowners who want to save money by installing themselves often make the mistake of buying an expensive carpet and then cutting costs by using a cheap pad beneath it. Cheap padding may save you money upfront, but it will cost you more in the long run as it quickly wears down your carpet.

Arranging for a consultation with a Sears Home Services representative is like having your carpet showroom in your home, Lincon says. Representatives bring a wide variety of samples to choose from as well as helpful advice on the pros and cons of each option. As a result, you can be confident that they will help you select the perfect carpet (and pad) for your budget, style, and needs.

The final point is key: Not everyone has identical carpeting requirements. “For example, if you have dogs or cats,” Lincon says, “you’ll profit from a carpet pad that contains antimicrobial properties, so your carpet won’t start smelling bad because of pet accidents.”

Carpeting also has a distinct feel underfoot, which might be unpleasant for some individuals. A house consultation will tell you exactly how your new carpeting will look and feel before it’s put in. Find reputable local experts who can assist you with any home improvement project.

3. Measuring new carpeting is a science.

“You can’t simply come up with a room’s square footage,” Lincon says. Of course, you begin by finding the square footage, but then you must decide how many rolls of carpeting will cover that space while minimizing (or hiding) the number of seams.

Rolls of carpeting come in standard widths, the most common being 12 feet. If you have a large floor, you might need to piece together more than one roll of carpeting and rearrange them until you find an arrangement that looks best and has the fewest seams.

While exact measurements are essential, you’ll also want to add a little wiggle room. For example, carpeting is also directional, so when arranging individual pieces of carpet to cover an entire room, remember to allow for this.

You’ll need to install all the pieces in the same direction so that the pile appears seamless instead of highlighting a break. If you’re looking for a carpet with a pattern, you’ll have to calculate how much extra carpeting you’ll require to match up the pieces precisely without any gaps in the design.

Carpet installation can be a stressful time, but with the help of a professional, you can ensure accuracy and avoid surprises.

4. Seams between carpet pieces can cause problems if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The most difficult aspect of installing a new carpet may be achieving unnoticeable seams. “If you don’t connect components properly, you’ll notice a visible seam between them,” Lincon adds. Unfortunately, an incorrect seam is not just noticeable; it’s also an area of weakness in the carpeting.

Over time, if it isn’t installed correctly, carpeting will come apart at the seams. This requires specific equipment and knowledge that most people don’t access.

For example, professional carpet layers use various tools designed for this specific task, such as carpet seaming knives that cut perfectly straight edges and heated irons…etc. This creates a bond between adjacent pieces of the carpet, so it looks flawless.

5. Cutting a carpet to fit can be challenging.

A room is more than just a box with four straight walls. Instead, the room’s shape can be influenced by wavy walls, bay or bow windows, or built-ins that protrude into the space.

Carpet cutting to fit these characteristics demands a certain level of expertise. “Consider a banister railing as an example. To fit around each baluster, you must first understand how to cut carpet properly,” Lincon explains, and do-it-yourselfers are rarely trained enough to produce a stunning result.

Carpet Removal Cost

Suppose you fear carpet disposal might be too tedious for you. In that case, HomeAdvisor suggests that hiring a professional would only cost around $1 to $1.50 per square foot–a price that includes labor and waste disposal.

Final Thoughts

These easy steps will show you how to remove your old, ugly carpet so you can replace it with something new and amazing. Just make sure to fix any damage to the subfloor before installing your fresh, fabulous new flooring so it doesn’t inherit all the flaws of the older option.

Meta Description:

Do you want to remove your carpet at home? Then, get this carpet removal equipment and follow DIY instructions to remove the old carpet in your house.