We are replacing the carpet throughout the second floor of our house and on two sets of stairs. It is bright yellow, stained, and just unpleasant any way you look at it. We elected to do the removal of the old carpet ourselves to save a little cash.

When we organized our closet last weekend, we removed the carpet from the floor in there. Z is out of town this week so I decided to have a go at some more carpet removal myself to take advantage of the trash removal cycle in our city. (I can put out carpet scraps tonight, but then not again for 2 weeks.)

I worked on the bottom half flight of stairs (from main floor to basement) and got all that off. Also, I did a couple of steps on the second half flight, but it was much more difficult as the carpet is wrapped around the edges of the steps and they used about a million nails/staples per step. I also did a small portion of the carpet outside our closet, in a sort of mini hallway.

The work requires a pair of heavy duty pliers, a utility knife, and a screwdriver to work on the carpet. The pliers to pull the carpet up from the floor, the knife to cut the carpet into sections for disposal, the screwdriver to pry up staples, and then a smaller pair or pliers to remove said staples. And then the ick factor….a plaster spatula to scrape up bits of underpad that had stuck to the floor due to, um, some kind of wetness. Finally, I used a small crowbar to pry up the tack strips around the edge of the space.

I awoke to aching hands that sting when I wash them. So no carpet removal for me today.