How Do I tear Up 30 Year Old Carpet?

Hi Beth,

Removing carpet is dirty work but not difficult. You'll need a pair of needle nose pliers to grab the edge and pull it up. Get a good utility knife with extra blades. Pull up a corner of carpet then start cutting the carpet into long strips about 3 feet wide. Roll the carpet strip as you go. The strips make the project easier especial when you go to haul it off.

i just did this very same thing. The carpet was so rotten it tore easily, and the pad had disintegrated to dust. Use a pair of pliers to grab a corner or by a door. Be careful! There is tack strip there and is very sharp. One you get it started, you just pull all around the diameter. You may need to use a utility knife to cut carpet into strips. Then you can roll it, and it will be much easier to carry out. The tack strip is the hardest part. You will need a small pry bar and a hammer. Place the end of the pry bar next to the strip and use the hammer to pound on the opposite end of the pry bar, thus forcing the bar under the strip. Strips are usually secured to the floor with tacks. Find rack tack and repeat the process. I'm not going to lie. It's hard work and depending on the condition of the pad, messy. I found beautiful wood floors under that awful carpet. Hope you do too!

If possible, remove the baseboards carefully and find the edge of the carpet and pull up. If the carpet butts up against the baseboard, find the edge and pull up. More than likely the carpet is held in place by tack strips which have nasty little tacks poking up through the carpet, so be careful. Wear leather gloves to protect your hands on the initial pull-up.

You can take a utility knife and cut through the carpeting to turn it into strips to make it easier since carpeting is heavy. Roll up and remove.

Remove the tack strips with a small crowbar, hammer, etc. They break apart easily enough, but they still have the nasty little tacks so be careful. What's left behind is a lot of dust and grit, so sweep and vacuum carefully.

Often carpet is put down to disguise issues with the old floor, so be ready for anything. I tore up carpeting in my 100-year-old house and discovered beautiful maple floors that needed to be refinished and a trap door to the basement.

Use a utility knife cut it into manageable widths and roll them up

I cut it into strips about 3' or 4' starting at a wall then roll it as you go, tie twine around it at each end then a piece of twine from each end to use as a handle to remove rolls to garbage. I used a box cutter to cut the carpet.

Wear a mask, there is years and years of dust and skin particles under that carpet. Take a utility knife and cut the room in half, then in half, to create manageable areas, starting at the edges, pull the carpet up and roll up the section. Do the same with all sections, then remove the padding (if there is any) the same way. Pry the tack strips up, very carefully, those little spikes are sharp. Vacuum and scrub the flooring, and remove any staples, etc. If you have hardwood under that carpet it might be a little marred from the years of carpet. If not, you should have a decent surface to install new flooring. Would love pics if there is hardwood!

We just did this. Carpet was so dry rotted it pulled up quite easily...BUT underneath was a rubber like pad that had adhered to the hard wood. In traffic areas it was next to impossible to remove. We ended up cleaning it the best we could, and putting new carpet down. The rubber old pad was like gum, sticking to your shoes, tracking everywhere. Really a major mess. Hope you don't have that kind of old pad.

Our old house had several layers of old, smelly, disgusting carpet and a green (?) carpet pad glued to beautiful hardwood! Why anyone would lay one layer of carpet on top of another was beyond us but it explained why we could never get the carpet clean! We ended up using shingle shovels to shovel the carpet up and haul it out. Be sure to wear a mask, heavy gloves and eye wear protection; beyond awful! There was one awful area of black glue that took forever to remove (with an utility blade), but we did find a beautiful (albeit dirty, dirty hardwood floor underneath the mess!