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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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:
Information provided by Best Carpet Value. Contact them for more carpeting and flooring information. I am not associated with Best Carpet Value.
No comments:
Post a Comment