Tear Up Carpet On Stairs

Find a good place to start removing carpet from stairs.

Tear up carpet on stairs.

Grip the carpet with both hands for easier removal and to maintain balance and safety. I repaired the treads removed. If there s a metal nosing at the top of the stairs pry it up to remove it. 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.

I started with the bottom step by using pliers to pull carpet away from stairs. I ended up cutting it a little more and folding the carpet under and stapling it down at the edge of the wood that is at the top of the staircase. 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. Use the vise grips to pull the carpet free from the riser.

Cut the carpet with a utility knife under the nose of the landing. I have plans to install hardwoods in our upstairs hallway. The blue stuff is the carpet padding and the arrows show where the nail strips are. One year ago i ripped up all of the beige carpet on my stairs.

I only want to have carpet in the bedrooms one day. Wear gloves to protect your hands from the staples that hold the carpet in place. This works fine for now. Some stairs are covered with short sections of carpet that wrap over just one tread and riser.

To take up all the carpet tack strips just place a flat head screw driver under the strip tap in with the hammer and gently pry it up. Keep moving the screwdriver until the tack strip comes up. Hopefully that will happen next summer. To remove carpet from stairs start at the top.

I started at the bottom corner of the stairs by using a crowbar to pry the carpet away from the tack strip. So here is the project replace carpet with stair runner tutorial. Pull up all the carpet pad. Once you get the carpet up this is what you will see.