Tearing Up Old Carpet

Roll up the strips and tape them for easy handling.

Tearing up old carpet.

If the pliers aren t cutting it you can also use a small crow bar to pry it back. Use a utility knife or carpet knife to slice the carpet into manageable strips and roll the strips up as you go. Pull up a few feet of carpet and fold it over. Pull back the carpeting until the entire rug can be rolled up removed from your home and placed in a dumpster.

Continue pulling up carpet a few feet at a time and cutting it into easy to handle strips. Use pliers to grab the carpet and pull it away from the subfloor. Then grab the carpet by hand and continue to pull it up along an entire wall. Roll or fold the strip secure with duct tape and remove it from the room.

To detach the carpet from the tack strip that holds the carpet in place along walls start in a corner. Carpet removal costs 1 to 1 50 per square foot including labor cleanup and waste disposal. Fold the carpet over for easy cutting and slice it into narrow strips. Keep both hands on the knife to avoid cutting a free hand.

After you ve rolled up the old carpeting and removed it from the room you ll finally get a good look at the subfloor and any surprise damage that the carpet may have been hiding. Pull up and dispose of the foam padding. Use a utility knife with a sharp new blade to cut through the carpet backing. If you reveal a carpet padding beneath keep it in place for now we ll tackle that later on.

If you are trying to salvage the floor underneath make sure you do not cut grooves in the floor with the knife. The average hourly rate is 60 per hour so expect to pay 180 in total for a contractor to remove and dispose of 12 by. One way to do this is to lift the carpet away from the floor as you cut. Continue pulling until you ve separated the carpet entirely from one wall.

Just grab the carpet with pliers and pull.