How to remove carpets from wooden floors (quick start guide)

Once a carpet has reached the end of its life, it is best to remove it to remove any dirt from your home. However, carpets on wooden floors are laid in such a way that they cannot move from their place. Therefore, removing is not as easy as grabbing from a corner and rolling up. The good thing is that you can do this job yourself. If you want to know how to remove carpets from wooden floors, you’ve come to the right place.

In general, people who know how to remove carpet glue charge something to do this job. It is not about the difficult, but about the exhaustion of the process. The average of these jobs is between $ 250 and $ 500, although a friend of yours could do it for free.

You may want to change your old carpet if it loses threads that can spread in the air and cause breathing problems. You may also make this change as it is time to remodel your home.

In any case, you cannot put a new carpet over the old one. You will be glad to know that you can remove the uninstall job from your budget by doing it yourself.

Reasons to remove a carpet

Although it doesn’t seem logical, there are many reasons why you would remove a carpet from your home. Once it’s no longer warm and becomes a worn mess, the only way to fix your floor is to replace it. Cleaning only works up to a point, but after that no stains appear.

Another common cause for removing a carpet is that the wooden floor starts to rot or crack. The only way to fix it is to remove the carpet.

Finally, there is the standard decision that people use to remove a carpet: for aesthetics. There are people who are tired of seeing a carpet in their house after a while and prefer that the wood is the one that decorates it. This wish is understandable, after all, hardwood looks great on its own.

Also, in modern styles, there is no room for certain types of full-size carpets.

If you are convinced that this is the right decision, read on to find out how to do it yourself.

How to remove carpets from wooden floors – a great project

Tools for removing carpets

Don’t start without being prepared with all the tools and materials you need. This saves you a lot of time and you can only concentrate on the work ahead. Prepare a budget of at least $ 100 to purchase:

• For your safety: dust mask, knee pads, safety glasses and leather gloves.
• How to remove the carpet: locking pliers and utility knife.
• How to remove fill and tack strips: a lever bar, hammer, floor scraper and carpet glue remover when the fill is glued.

Is it worth doing it yourself?

The best way to determine if it is worth removing the carpet yourself is to check whether the money you save justifies the effort. This can be achieved by asking installers and friends about the price of the project.

You can also tell them your wish that you want to uninstall the carpet yourself so that you can ask them for advice. Contractors, bricklayers and decorators also know what to do with the old carpet.

The latter is important to consider, as not all garbage collectors accept carpet rolls. In other cities, however, it is common for the municipal cleaning service to do this.

When it comes to preparation, you should remove the doors that open to the carpet for easy removal.

Before removing carpets from wooden floors, prepare standard safety devices such as gloves and glasses. Gloves are essential as they prevent you from hurting your hands when removing the carpet. We also recommend wearing a dust mask as there is a lot of dirt on the carpets.

Remove all furniture from the room, ask for help with this task if necessary. You can now start rolling the carpet.

Start at the corners

The easiest way to remove a carpet is from the corners. Rugs are usually installed over baseboards or plinths (wood or ceramic strips at the bottom of the wall), so you shouldn’t have a problem finding a loose corner. If not, you will need to remove the base for it to work.

To make the job easier, reach for an edge with a pair of locking pliers and insert it between the open areas. Remove the carpet gradually to avoid damaging the wood.

Strips are easier to remove

If you don’t want to reuse the carpet, you can cut it easily. It is easier to remove long streaks than a carpet that covers your entire room.

Use a utility knife or razor to trim. Hold the knife with both hands and cut lengthways. Long narrow strips can be rolled up easily and are lighter.

The thickness of the strips depends on how much weight you can carry. Thick strips will be much heavier.

If necessary, lift the adhesive strips

A tacky strip, as the name suggests, is a metal tape with several staples or sharp elements that cross the carpet to hold it in place.

These strips are required to install a new carpet. So if you remove an old carpet and the tacks are in good condition, you can reuse them.

If you need to install new strips, you should remove the old ones with a lever bar and hammer.

Place the lever bar on one end of the strip and press to release it. Be very careful in this process to avoid accidents. It is recommended to wear leather gloves so that the iron does not cut you. To get rid of the strips, place them in the carpet rolls so they don’t break the bags.

You have to remove the filling

Removing carpets from wooden floors requires knowing how to remove the upholstery under the carpet. This is perhaps the part that carpet owners are most concerned about, as the way to fix this filling on many occasions is to glue the wood.

In these situations, a carpet glue remover is likely to be required to remove any adhesive residue.

Another option that installers have is to use staples in the various padding fields. This method is much easier to remove because it is enough to grasp and pull one of the seams so that all the staples come out.

Do not perform any of the removal operations without gloves. Even staples can be dangerous to remove because, depending on your strength, they can get up and hit your hands.

In the same way, you need to roll the filling to get rid of it. This does not have to be shortened as it is very easy. Once you have removed the hardwood floor or staple glue, you can proceed to the next step.

The stairs are a bit more complex

To remove the mat sticking to a ladder, it is not enough to lift it from a corner. An opening must be created by cutting the top edge of one of the risers (the sections that add height to each step).

Some stairs have metal edges at the top of the steps, especially the last one. In these cases, you don’t have to make additional cuts in the carpet to remove it, as you can remove it from here.

The stair mat is also carried by staples and thumbtacks. Here you also use the lever bar and hammer to remove the strips. In this case, however, they are executed individually to prevent them from causing disasters.

If a section cannot be removed, cut it into a small strip. Keep in mind that if you roll it into very large strips, the carpet will get heavy.

You already know everything you need to remove carpets from wooden floors. The time this project will take depends on the size of your carpet and your commitment. However, doing it yourself can be worth it to save a few hundred dollars.

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