Removing Carpet

Who loves wall to wall carpet? I know some of you do. That’s ok … but I am now getting to the point that I really don’t like it at all. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s super comfy and soft. But man with kids, pets and allergies it is just not working for us.  I have three types of carpet cleaners… yep 3! I still can’t manage to keep the carpet clean. However in the rooms I have wood floors and an area rug they all look much cleaner even if there not.  Maybe it’s the fact this carpet is super light, Maybe I would like it better if it was dark and had a different kind of weave. But for now… I don’t like it. And I can’t afford to replace it with wood or with more carpet.  The one thing I do know is that this carpet… It HAS TO GO!!!  Here is our big playroom with tons of light carpet. STAINED carpet. It may be hard to tell that this carpet is covered in stains but trust me on this one. It was covered. You know with pet stains and um art projects like this one below.  Yep, Jude got very creative and used the carpet and himself as his canvas. I always say my home is my canvas but didn’t mean it quite that literally!  So this room has been through a several stage makeover. Here is the original way the playroom looked in the real estate listing photo. Look the carpet is actually somewhat clean. But at the same time I had a feeling that it was hiding some dirt underneath. I felt it was causing us to all feel a little icky. My whole family has bad allergies. I was hoping once this huge carpet was gone we would get some relief.

Main Reasons I Decided to Remove Carpet

• hard to keep clean
• wanted a hard service that was easy to clean
• hoped it would help us feel better
• create a unique  more sophisticated look

Tools You Need for Removing Carpet

1. mini pry bar
2. needle nosed pliers
3. hammer
4. box cutter
5. utility gloves
6. safety googles

 Steps to removing carpet

With large carpets you will want to work in sections for each step. I removed this carpet with my 4 year old in the room so before I moved to the next section I made sure the prior section was clear and safe of nails and staples. 

1. Using the box cutter cut through the carpet, cut it in to a rectangular section. If it is not cutting easily try pulling up on the carpet while cutting. Cutting should not be difficult.
2. Roll up this section of carpet. Parts of it will be tacked down so be aware of the sharp tacks.
3. Using the box cutter. Cut the section of carpet padding up. Roll the carpet padding up.
4. Your next job is to remove the tack stripping from around the area. This is a bit of a pain. Place your mini pry bar under the wood nearest to a nail and then hit the pry bar with a hammer. Apply pressure to the pry bar to remove stripping. (see picture below)
5. Go through and remove all the remaining nails and staples that are in your section. Use the needle nosed pliers to make this task a little easier. All of those little blue tuffs pictured below are staples. Don’t ignore those.

So that’s about it. It’s an annoying, tedious process in a big room but you can do it. The next step you can proceed with is cleaning the dirt and dust from the sub floor. You would have been in shock… seriously… if you could have seen what a thick layer of dirt and dust was on these floors. I almost think it was from construction. So gross! Here’s a tip: If you are having your floors re-done by a pro. Negotiate the removal. Often times if you remove the previous material they will cut that cost out. That’s the method I used to save on my front yard landscaping. I removed all the pea gravel and transplanted it to our ROCK BOX myself and shaved about $800 off the total.    Tell us some of your tricks for removing carpet or any other flooring.   Do you love carpet? If so tell us why… If not tell us what your favorite flooring is.  Make sure you sign up for our newsletter below so that you won’t miss out on seeing what type of floors we used in this room for under $200!   Find out if removing the carpet has improved our allergies.    Till Next Time…