Removing Carpet Over Hardwood Floors

Then we cleared the room and began ripping out carpet.

Removing carpet over hardwood floors.

I suggest wearing your worst work clothes including a long sleeved shirt. Once you ve established that you really want to remove the carpet be prepared for one of the dirtiest smelliest jobs you ve ever done in your life. Dispose of tacking strips and any staples or nails that held the strips in place. Pulling back the layers of carpet and padding we found that the hardwood floor looked ok.

Uncovering the 1960s hardwood floor under carpet. You can generally save. Before you can begin to deep clean hardwood floors you will need to remove the stubborn adhesive that was left behind you might also still have some remnants of your carpet tacks and staples still on the ground that need removing. Removing old carpet is the first step toward having something besides old stained carpet as your floor.

In order to have that beautiful hardwood floor you need to keep in mind that there are two types of glues that are used when putting down a carpet general carpet adhesive and tar based glue. An even better option when it comes to getting your floors clean after removing carpet is to opt for a hardwood steam cleaner. Remove the carpet tacking strips which may be nailed or stapled to the hardwood floor. The procedure for removal of both these adhesives is the same but the products used are not.

Rubbery carpet padding can fuse onto a hardwood floor. This needs to be removed. Use the pliers to pull up any staples that remain stuck in the floor. Even if you are hiring someone to install new flooring you may want to pull out the old carpet yourself.

Use your standard screwdriver to pry them from the floor. After 26 hours of labor i found out how and how not to remove carpet padding from hardwood floors. Not only will it help to loosen any extra dirt and grime but in the event that you also missed a little bit of adhesive the hot steam from the mop will help to loosen the material so it can be. When you remove carpeting only to find hardwood floors underneath it can feel like you ve hit the jackpot right up until you notice the unsightly residual carpet glue.

Remove all of the leftover residue. We gathered the tools needed for removing carpet over hardwood floors see our list below.