Removing Carpet Staples From Stairs

Hold the tool at about a 45 degree angle and slide it forcefully along the floor.

Removing carpet staples from stairs.

Find a good place to start removing carpet from stairs. To remove carpet from stairs start at the top. I ve never been happier to be up to date on my tetanus shot. I did use a very small screwdriver to get under many of the staples.

Work as patiently and carefully as you can when you re using both your crowbar and when you re removing the staples or nails. We had our stairs re carpeted over the summer and made the sound decision to remove the old carpet padding staples ourselves the night before installation. If not cut the carpet near the top of the top riser grab the cut end and pull the carpet off the stairs by hand. Flooring installers don t use a cat s paw to remove staples after old carpet has been removed there are just too many of them.

Use pliers to pull padding staples when removing carpet from stairs. I started pulling out the gazillion staples that held down the padding and the padding from the original carpet that was installed in 1978. If there s a metal nosing at the top of the stairs pry it up to remove it. I can not believe how many staples are used for padding.

If you know for sure you re going to put down new carpet or paint your stairs you don t have to be as careful. Insert 30 second sigh dem staples oh and those medieval carpet spikes that hide in the crevices. You want to do as little damage to your stairs as possible. Tough spots might require a power oscillating tool.

I started at the bottom corner of the stairs by using a crowbar to pry the carpet away from the tack strip. The carpet will be stapled extensively and old staples seem designed to poke fingers or palms so proceed carefully during this step and throughout the removal process. Wear gloves to protect your hands from the staples that hold the carpet in place. On a concrete floor the carpet pad is often glued into place.

Each piece of carpet was also wrapped around the edges of the stairs and around the balusters so i had to remove the staples holding it in place from underneath green arrow below. Instead they ve developed a smart efficient way to remove staples with a shovel or long handled floor scraper. After removing all the pad and tack strips the real work began. In addition to staples a tack strip essentially a length of batten with razor hooks sticking out will sit along each edge of the carpeting making gloves absolutely.