I am thinking of pulling up the wall to wall carpet from the living room in my apt. Of course I have the approval of the landlord. What I want to know is what is involved...besides the physical removal of the carpet, and then removal of the strips around the edges, with the upside down nails that have kept the carpet in place.
Thanks in advance for any advise, Bonnie
I am thinking of pulling up the wall to wall carpet from the living room in my apt. Of course I have the approval of the landlord. What I want to know is what is involved...besides the physical removal of the carpet, and then removal of the strips around the edges, with the upside down nails that have kept the carpet in place.
Thanks in advance for any advise, Bonnie
What kind of flooring is under the carpet? If oak, could be stained from previous owners. The padding could be stuck to the wood in places. There could be many nail holes in the floor from previous installations of carpet. The padding could be randomly stapled to the floor. You could be getting in to a bag of worms. Peel off a corner and investigate what is underneath, and you will have a better idea of where to go from there.
Lena
...and you may have to install quarter round all the way around to cover the gaps between the floor and the molding along the wall that were covered by the carpeting.
Lena
The removal of carpet is fairly easy. After clearing the room of all furniture, start by pulling the carpet up in one corner of the room and work your way out from there. You will need a utility knife to cut the carpet into easy to manage sections as you remove it. After the carpet is out, you will need to remove the padding which will be stapled down. If the padding is still in good shape and you plan on putting in new carpet, leave the padding alone. However, padding is cheap enough to replace what is there. So, if you have any doubts, replace it. If you are removing the padding, it will pull up easily and will tear/break apart as you pull it. Once the padding is out, you will need to remove all of the staples (if on a wood floor/subfloor) that held it down. A good set of pliers will do the job. If you are after a hardwood floor underneath, then you will need to remove the "tackless" strips (the strips of wood that have the upside down nails) along the edge of the room. A small pry bar will do the trick in removing those. Pry where the strips are nailed down and they should come out easily. If you are replacing the carpet with new carpet, then leave the tackless strips in place. I would estimate that you could remove the carpet, padding and tackless in a 12 x12 foot room in 2 hours, not counting furniture removal.
Worst part of this job will be the disposal of the old carpet.
Thanks everyone--much appreciated
bonnie
what up
I never understood these staples
a person puts carpet on hardwood floors they say.. "it's cheaper than refinishing".. or for whatever reason
WHY THE HELL would they load the hardwood floor up with staples
i had to pull about 2,000 staples from a small area.. it was insane that someone felt a padding needed staples
professional installers do not staple the padding to any floor
i might put one here or there just to make a fold co-operate
Hi Bonnie,
If you are going to put new carpet down, you shouldn't have to remove the old tackless strips (the strips with the upside down nails). But if you are going to refinish a hardwood floor under it, yes, remove those and the stray nails and pull all the staples used to hold the cushion down. Should be a lot of those. A scraper type tool can remove those pretty quickly, leaving just a few bent over staples that you can yank with pliers. However, a scraping tool may scratch the wood flooring. But if you have to sand and finish, it may not be significant.
Here's a great new site that can answer most all your flooring related questions:
R'gards,
Jim
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