Tools for removing old carpet padding and staples

[Ryland]

Would a flat shovel work to make the job of removing old carpet padding and staples easier? I don't care about the subfloor so that can get dinged up.

 

[willymakeit]

Cut the carpet in 2' strips with a carpet knife. A shovel or scraper will help. Once you get a peice started ,cut a hand hole in it for a better grip. Hope this helps.

 

[Ryland]

Cool, thanks.

 

[yiranhu]

I have found that anything heavy and has an edge will pop the staples out very easily. When i was doing this, I used the chisel part of a crowbar and it worked great. Something specifically designed for this would probably work better though.

 

[Ryland]

I'm thinking some kind of flat shovel or long handled scraper. I need to see what HD has in stock. I have a lot of padding to remove and not nearly enough time to do it in.

 

[dlewis]

Cut the carpet in 2' strips with a carpet knife. A shovel or scraper will help. Once you get a peice started ,cut a hand hole in it for a better grip. Hope this helps.

I 2nd that just start at tack strip and pull walking back over the padding till you get that strip done roll up and wrap with duct tape.If your going to put carpet and pad down again just beat the staples down you should be able to then pull any chuncks up with your fingers.

 

[Ryland]

HD sells a Rigid 7" heavy duty scraper that works wonders for this. I took care of one room pretty quickly followed by a hallway.

 

[Ryland]

for the record, staircases ****. I think it took me as long to remove staples from a single flight of stairs as the entire upstairs.

 

[tcianci]

Once you get the carpet and pad up, you can make short work of the remaining snots with a 4 inch angle grinder and a 36 grit disc. It will be dusty though but you could clean up a room in just a few minutes.

 

[Kevin54]

Would a flat shovel work to make the job of removing old carpet padding and staples easier? I don't care about the subfloor so that can get dinged up.

Lowes and such sell a long handle scraper with reversible / replaceable blades. It will make short work of removing the staples although a few you may have to pull with pliers. The blade is sharp enough that it catches the staples and pulls them completely out. The blade is about 4" wide.
Also when the blade is a little dull, don't toss it as it makes a hell of an ice scraper. BTW...the handle for it is metal with a cushion grip. I can't remember what section it is in at Lowes but it is not in the flooring section. It may have been in where they sell the drywall tools.

Here it is. A Warner heavy duty floor scraper http://www.lowes.com/pd_160968-995-34792_0_?productId=3121751&Ntt=floor+scraper&Ntk=i_products&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s?newSearch=true$Ntt=floor%20scraper$y=0$x=0

 

[nehog]

First hire a school student at minimum wage.

Second a scraper like the ones shown/described above.

Third a pair of needle nose pliers.

Put the kid to work, tell him that the test is to rub a board across the floor, there should be no catching on left over staples...

 

[Ryland]

Its all done except for a small section under a waterbed (for obvious reasons). The staircase was the worst due to the sheer number of staples used.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

A mans staple puller.
________
vaporizer forums

 

[Ryland]

A mans staple puller.

Got one. Have used it many times already on pulling some of the staples.

 

[brrman]

I just used a flat screwdriver

 

[Ryland]

I just used a flat screwdriver

Used that too. Every staple that remained seemed to need a different tool to pull it out.

 

[wafrederick]

Do you know anyone that has a Fein Multimaster?Slick tool for carpet removal.Has a scraper blade that will cut through carpet.

 

[Ryland]

None of my friends who might have something like that do or else can't find it.

 

[JG15]

Always had the problem of finding a way to remove the carpet staples easily and tried everything from pliers, side cutters, screwdrivers, ice scraper, etc. And no matter what tool I used I was always on my hands and knees pulling them out. I did a little more deep searching online and found a tool called The Staple Popper. I bought it to try it out and I have to say I was not disappointed at all. The tool worked great did everything I wanted it to and the best part was I wasn't on my hands knees anymore ripping out staples. Thats right its a stand up tool that rolls along the floor and you slide the teeth under the staple and pop them out. I highly recommend people to try out this tool and can buy it at www.thestaplepopper.com. There is also a video on the website showing the tool in action too.

 

[ozyborn]

For me? 50 year old wool carpet. Padding is not a hard crust layer that breaks easily. Nailed down every 3 inches in a checkerboard pattern across the entire floor. Gel knee pads and a good scraper. Keep a good set of pliers handy. I hate this house..

 

[Kevin54]

Always had the problem of finding a way to remove the carpet staples easily and tried everything from pliers, side cutters, screwdrivers, ice scraper, etc. And no matter what tool I used I was always on my hands and knees pulling them out. I did a little more deep searching online and found a tool called The Staple Popper. I bought it to try it out and I have to say I was not disappointed at all. The tool worked great did everything I wanted it to and the best part was I wasn't on my hands knees anymore ripping out staples. Thats right its a stand up tool that rolls along the floor and you slide the teeth under the staple and pop them out. I highly recommend people to try out this tool and can buy it at www.thestaplepopper.com. There is also a video on the website showing the tool in action too.

I take it you are a salesman for these? Just a few seconds into the video the third stapel they popped broke off, so it is no better than the scraper that I showed. Plus it looked like they had a tad bit of problem getting it to lay flat with the wheels wanting to raise it up while sliding.

And for $200, I think I could buy a way more scrapers and replaceable blade for the type that I showed. I had three rooms to pull staples from when redoing my parents home. After the carpet and padding was up, I took my scraper and all three rooms were done in about 30 minutes.

 

[JG15]

I take it you are a salesman for these? Just a few seconds into the video the third stapel they popped broke off, so it is no better than the scraper that I showed. Plus it looked like they had a tad bit of problem getting it to lay flat with the wheels wanting to raise it up while sliding.

And for $200, I think I could buy a way more scrapers and replaceable blade for the type that I showed. I had three rooms to pull staples from when redoing my parents home. After the carpet and padding was up, I took my scraper and all three rooms were done in about 30 minutes.

No I am not a salesman for these just a homeowner trying not to damage his hardwood floors with the scraper you showed. Yes, I have tried a scraper similar to the one you showed years ago in my first home and it scratched my floors badly. Thank god they weren't hardwood and only plywood so I didn't care too much. But just bought a new home a month ago and wanted to redo the hardwoods underneath the carpet. I did a small section with the scraper and it not only sheared off or bent majority of the staples over but also left scratches in my floor. Scratches in hardwood means more money to get them refinished and I was not happy. All I was trying to do was provide people with a solution that got majority of the staples completely out.

I did my living room dining room 4 bedrooms and upstairs hallway in a hr and a half. There was a minimal amount of staples that one side stayed in but when I got out easily over 1000 staples with this tool I did not mind going back with pliers to pull out the few staples that remained. Even better part is that the staple popper did not do any damage to my floors like the scraper did on the small section I used it on. I didn't mind the price because its a well built tool and it made a weekends worth of work into an extremely easy job.

 

[swe13]

Always had the problem of finding a way to remove the carpet staples easily and tried everything from pliers, side cutters, screwdrivers, ice scraper, etc. And no matter what tool I used I was always on my hands and knees pulling them out. I did a little more deep searching online and found a tool called The Staple Popper. I bought it to try it out and I have to say I was not disappointed at all. The tool worked great did everything I wanted it to and the best part was I wasn't on my hands knees anymore ripping out staples. Thats right its a stand up tool that rolls along the floor and you slide the teeth under the staple and pop them out. I highly recommend people to try out this tool and can buy it at www.thestaplepopper.com. There is also a video on the website showing the tool in action too.

You must really like this tool, because you registered on at least 3 other sites to make your one and only post- to post this review and usually it's word for word.

 

[kwfloors]

Get the extendable 8" replaceable blade scraper from the flooring dept at HD. Around $25. You can use the blade backwards for staple pulling. Tacker staples tend to shear off so pulling is the only thing to do. I don't leave staples of any type under any floor I do. The guys that leave them and cover them up are hackers and aren't qualified to do carpet.