Home | Resources | 1836 House | 1895 House | 1924 House | Projects | Antiques | Outdoors

Projects | Removing Very Old Carpet

We visited a 1924 house in Rochester, New York recently.  The people moving in were lucky to get a house in really great shape.  As usual though, there was a very old and very ugly shag carpet covering both the living room and dining room floors.   Since the rest of the house is in such good shape, removing the carpet became a priority.

During the initial tour of the house, someone managed to peek a look under the carpet to see what was underneath.  Of course, looking under a hidden corner of the carpet does not tell you the condition of the rest of the floor beneath.  A clean carpet in good condition hides all kinds of water damage, scratches, and gouges. 

They were lucky.  As you see in the picture the wooden floors are like new.  This is when they turned to Anna & I and asked how best to remove the offending carpet.  Since we had to do this when we moved into our 1895 home, we had an idea of the process. 

All of the carpet was cut into strips except one larger piece that was scheduled to be used on the third floor.  A sharpened  hooked tile knife was used it to cut the rug strips.  I made sure to lift the carpet well off the floor before cutting to avoid damaging the wood.   Anna and crew rolled each rug strip, tied, and then hauled each bundle out to the garage.

Keep the strips fairly narrow.  It is amazing just how heavy these rolls get, especially after moving furniture all morning.   Get them out of the house now or you will be tempted to just step around them for the next several weeks. By week two you become convinced that the unruly pile qualifies as an art form and should be preserved for future generations. 

Removing the pad was a different matter.  It was so old that it literally fell apart as we tried to roll it into a bundle.  Instead, we had to cut each section into small pieces and stuff into a strong garbage bag.  All the "droppings" had to be chased down and swept up as well.  Nothing too hard so far, just a lot of time burned up. 

The new owner had never removed carpet before, so he was a bit perplexed about how to remove the tack strip along each wall and the bazillions of staples used to hold the carpet pad in place.   

Staple Removal | Resources | Back to Projects