Pulling Carpet For Hardwood

JSJJ388

JSJJ388

GREEN GREMLIN
Joined
Aug 31, 2016
Location
HAMPTONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
When we bought our house it came with nice thick fluffy carpet. But it was white. Between me and the dog, its no longer white. We have planned to pull it since we bought the house since it has beautiful hardwood underneath. Was put down because the 80 y/o lady didnt like cold floors.

Anyone have any good tips for pulling up carpet and cleaning the underlying hardwood? Hoping not to have to refinish, but we will if needed.

@GotWood

This is the carpet when we bought the house.

80bd47b9cb4e46e86185a6b3ba7176c6l-m1xd-w1020_h770_q80.jpg


Here is what the hardwood looks like throughout the house.

80bd47b9cb4e46e86185a6b3ba7176c6l-m8xd-w1020_h770_q80.jpg


Our game plan is just to clean it and shine it up.
 
The issue will be all the tack strips and nails, especially if there is a seam down the middle of a floor. The other issue will be when you pull up that carpet in the living room and find the 4' piece of osb they fixed rotted floor with and giant dog piss stain they hid with carpet. Either way if you want it to look decent at all expect to need it refinished... And have fun pulling all the nails.
 
Half the staples will break off leaving a very small piece protruding out of the wood floor that is nearly impossible to grab on to and pull out. Those are a PITA
 
And if they cheaped out with:
  • old black "foam" backed carpet... it'll be melted to the hardwood = refinish
  • NO padding and the combo of stiff backing + dirt + 20 years of use will make it look like it was sandblasted thru a window screen = refinish
  • repeated animal piss or "drip drying" after showers on the carpet = refinish
Our new place has 1 & 3 in a couple rooms :flipoff:
 
Thanks for the input guys.

braxton357 said:
The issue will be all the tack strips and nails, especially if there is a seam down the middle of a floor. The other issue will be when you pull up that carpet in the living room and find the 4' piece of osb they fixed rotted floor with and giant dog piss stain they hid with carpet. Either way if you want it to look decent at all expect to need it refinished... And have fun pulling all the nails.
Click to expand...

I am worried about the tack strips. But the only seams are at the doorways as far as I can tell. Ive been under the house and havent seen any OSB flooring, but I guess it could be there. Ill burn that bridge when I get there I guess. Im not looking forward to pulling those strips up, but they have to come up no matter what we do flooring wise. What am I looking at to get it refinished? If it just need finishing and not a complete redo, whats a decent price per sqft?

Fabrik8 said:
You need some proper nippers to pull those staples. Knipex carpenter's pincers work the best, and don't even bother with anything else.
Click to expand...

These? https://www.amazon.com/50-00-300-Ca...896&sr=8-6&keywords=knipex+carpenters+pincers Thanks, Ill order them this week.

Caver Dave said:
And if they cheaped out with:
  • old black "foam" backed carpet... it'll be melted to the hardwood = refinish
  • NO padding and the combo of stiff backing + dirt + 20 years of use will make it look like it was sandblasted thru a window screen = refinish
  • repeated animal piss or "drip drying" after showers on the carpet = refinish
Our new place has 1 & 3 in a couple rooms :flipoff:
Click to expand...

We pulled a corner up last night. It has nice thick padding under it. The carpet was in great shape when we moved in. But our puppy has peed in a few places. We cleaned them up quickly and they arent old, so hopefully no damage there.

The padding is brownish with black spots in it and the residue seemed to wipe off where we pulled it up at.

The floors in the other room look good to me. Supposedly that is what they look like throughout.
 
We want to get the carpet up before its completely ruined. We knew from the start that we wanted to get rid of it.
 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005EXO6V2

Something like that. They're smaller but sharper. There are 4 or 5 different handle lengths in that series, and they don't need to be long because you have plenty of leverage for small staples or tacks. Short handles are better for this because they're quicker to use for repetitive small stuff where there's little force needed.
 
I like using Klein side cutter to pull the syaple remnants. The nose levers off the floor.
 
Oh...you were talking about actual flooring. That's a misleading title.
 
The end nipper will get most of them, but you need a damn good pair of flush edge needle nose for about 5% of them.
 
Read again. The nose (of the pliers) levers off the floor.
 
Yep get ready for some profanity w/ the staples. Be gentle but firm prying the tack strips up to minimize scarring on the surface. Its going to leave holes where they are nailed in, and the 4,000 staples to pull up will also leave tiny holes. Take for ibuprofen before you start, and drink a beer or two as you go along.

In all seriousness its not so bad, you'll just be on your knees awhile making a lot of repetitive movements.
You might get lucky and the floor is in great shape and need nothing besides a good cleaning. That happened in our old house, similar story... built in '64, in ~'70 they put in plush carpet and had it changed a couple times, had a nice thick pad. did 2 rooms that needed n finishing at all.
But then the hallway had the infamous black foam pad that was worn/disintegrated into the wood and it had to be completely sanded and refinished.
 
Here's what I'm working with. The little black pieces wipe away.

Carpet was put down in 08. House was empty sin 2012.
b41d438e7ee19f1f3bd06f65e3abc1c9.jpg


Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
RatLabGuy said:
In all seriousness its not so bad, you'll just be on your knees awhile making a lot of repetitive movements.
Click to expand...


I knew this thread wasn't about floors!
 
Get to it....the reward is worth it. I did this in several rooms. My allergies are absolutely ten times better with hardwoods. We redid my grandparents house....it has some staining which we treated and sanded. We did a more rustic treatment on another project and actually liked some of the damage and tack strip holes.
 
Scooter402 said:
Mmm....Reece's....those are my favorite to work with, too. :D
Click to expand...
That bag will be all yours if you wanna pull some carpet...

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
Here's the system to use.
IMG_20180510_063411951.jpg


Start by pulling the carpet, leave the pad on the floor. Now start pulling the "tackless" carpet strip (yes that is technically what it's called) and place it neatly on the pad .Now you can roll up the pad with the tack strip inside and avoid all of the puncture wounds .

Now you have the floor uncovered and can decide on how to remove the staples. If your going to save the floor and not refinish get down on the floor with you newly purchased roll back pliers and a screwdriver and get to work .

If you decide to have the floor refinished (looks like it will need to be) skip the pliers method .Go to Lowe's and buy a scraper like the one in the picture . They are in the paint department for about $25. This will be the best investment you'll make .When you get your scraper home, beat it up on the concrete so it's not sharp, you don't want it to cut into the floor as your scraping. Dull blade slides over the floor and scratches but doesn't dig into the floor .

As far as cost goes, that's like asking "how much does a car cost?" . It will depend on many factors but expect anywhere between $2.50-$5.00. I know that's a broad range but many factors are involved like are the old floors waxed, are you staining, water vs oil finish etc.
 
GotWood said:
Here's the system to use.
View attachment 268057

Start by pulling the carpet, leave the pad on the floor. Now start pulling the "tackless" carpet strip (yes that is technically what it's called) and place it neatly on the pad .Now you can roll up the pad with the tack strip inside and avoid all of the puncture wounds .

Now you have the floor uncovered and can decide on how to remove the staples. If your going to save the floor and not refinish get down on the floor with you newly purchased roll back pliers and a screwdriver and get to work .

If you decide to have the floor refinished (looks like it will need to be) skip the pliers method .Go to Lowe's and buy a scraper like the one in the picture . They are in the paint department for about $25. This will be the best investment you'll make .When you get your scraper home, beat it up on the concrete so it's not sharp, you don't want it to cut into the floor as your scraping. Dull blade slides over the floor and scratches but doesn't dig into the floor .

As far as cost goes, that's like asking "how much does a car cost?" . It will depend on many factors but expect anywhere between $2.50-$5.00. I know that's a broad range but many factors are involved like are the old floors waxed, are you staining, water vs oil finish etc.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the expertise! I was hoping youd chime in.

Just out of curiosity, why, from the little you've seen of it do you think it needs refinished? Just wondering what I can look for while doing it to help make our decision. Because refinishing isnt really in the budget right now, we just dont want the carpet to get so bad it messes up the floor underneath. So if it can wait to be refinished that would be great, cause that would likely put a dent in my jeep/gun fund.
 
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