Taking Up Carpet Grippers

It depends on how much of the carpet you re going to pull up.

Taking up carpet grippers.

Fold back about 3 ft. Carpet is stretched over tack strips using a kick stretcher or a power stretcher so if you pull the whole carpet it you risk losing that stretch. A chisel with a fine sharp end that could get under the carpet gripper. Of carpet and cut it into easy to handle strips photo 1.

How to install carpet grippers. Another item to use as a fulcrum under the first chisel. Carpet installers use strong mastic that doesn t deteriorate when they glue down carpets and they often use more than is really needed both of which spell bad news for you when you want to remove the carpet. How to lift a carpet up without damaging it.

Pulling up the carpet and scraping underneath with a paint scraper to beak the glue bond is tedious work and wetting the carpet to loosen the adhesive may cause it to break into pieces. Use a utility knife with a sharp new blade to cut through the carpet backing. Use a utility knife or carpet knife to slice the carpet into manageable strips and roll the strips up as you go. I did some work under our carpet and wound up pulling up too much and had to.

Continue pulling up carpet a few feet at a time and cutting it into easy to handle strips. I used a smaller chisel but i could have used anything of similar size and solid such as a screwdriver or piece of wood or metal. Carpet is installed using glue or tack strips. Here is how i removed the carpet grippers in one room.

You can pull carpet up off the tacking strip to do some work. Just grab the carpet with pliers and pull. One way to do this is to lift the carpet away from the floor as you cut. Roll or fold the strip secure with duct tape and remove it from the room.

Then grab the carpet by hand and continue to pull it up along an entire wall. If you are trying to salvage the floor underneath make sure you do not cut grooves in the floor with the knife. Pull up a few feet of carpet and fold it over. In most cases glue down carpet cannot be lifted up without damaging the backing or tearing the carpet.

To detach the carpet from the tack strip that holds the carpet in place along walls start in a corner.