How To: Lift Old Carpet

Sometimes, to pave the way for something new and beautiful; we have to roll our sleeves up and get stuck into the not-so-glamorous jobs. Removing your old carpet is sadly one of those tasks! Often overlooked, and not to be underestimated!

Carpet removal is a relatively straightforward task that just about anybody can complete, plus when you remove the carpet yourself, you also get the opportunity to inspect floorboards before your new carpet goes in – to check no maintenance is required.

Preparation work:

First things first, before you start to remove your carpet, you need to clear every piece of furniture from the room, and if possible – remove the doors from their hinges. You want the space to be as wide open and easy to work in as possible.

Regarding PPE, we recommend wearing safety gloves – as you will come into contact with carpet grippers under the surface, and a face mask if you’re sensitive to dust particles in the air!

Removing your carpet:

Most of what is holding your carpet down are the grippers fixed around the perimeter of the subfloor – so it really is in most cases as simple as it sounds; just pick a corner of your choice, grab the carpet with a pair of pliers, and give it a good pull.

If this frees the corner up from the grippers, great! Just keep working around the edges until your carpet is fully released from the grippers. If you can’t quite get the corner up, however, all is not lost. Simply cut a section of the corner away with your Stanley knife to create an opening (around 15x15cm) – and use the extra leverage to pull the carpet free with the pliers.

Once your carpet is free, cut the carpet down the length of the room into strips (being careful not to score through to your subfloor) that you can roll up, secure with duct tape, and dispose of easily (and RESPONSIBLY!).

If there is underlay under your carpet, repeat the process of cutting lengths to roll up, secure, and dispose of.

Removing the grippers:

With your carpet and underlay now rolled up, secured, and disposed of responsibly – we can remove the carpet grippers (unless they’re in very good condition, and you’d like to re-use them for your new carpet!).

To remove your grippers, use a crowbar to get under the wooden strip and pry it up bit by bit. These may splinter along the way, just ensure you’re careful picking them up and wrapping them up appropriately before handling them to dispose of!

Tidying up:

So, your carpet, underlay and grippers should now be removed and bundled up ready to be disposed of properly. Give yourself a pat on the back!

Now, all that’s left to do is tidy up any of the mess created through the process with a thorough sweep and vacuum, and ensure any staples are fully removed from the subfloor, and any protruding nails are either removed or driven below the surface.