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About John Michaels
Expertise
All questions pertaining to all indoor floor coverings regarding best products to choose, proper installation techniques, and proper maintenance techniques.

Experience
We are a nationwide floor covering inspection service. We inspect all types of indoor floor coverings in every city and town in all 50 States and in all the Provinces of Canada. We see where errors in choice of product, improper installation, and improper maintenance lead to complaints being registered and we are then called upon to inspect those products and issue certified reports indicating from where those complaint issues eminate. We have done this type of work for over 40 years.

Publications
Floor Covering Weekly & Floor Covering News

Education/Credentials
Carpet, vinyl, and hardwood manufacturing, installation, and maintenance, prior to just inspecting, and a division of our Company specifies proper floor covering choices for residential and commercial uses.

You are here: Experts > Style > Interior Decorating > Flooring and Carpeting > Removing carpet from hardwood floors

Flooring and Carpeting - Removing carpet from hardwood floors

Expert: John Michaels - 11/1/2009

Question
I want to remove 38 year old carpet that is covering hardwood floors. After checking under part of the carpet, the hardwood floors seem to be in good condition. I am hoping not to put carpeting back down. I want to clean them up and make them shine. The old carpet padding was stapled down. Are there any tricks to ensure staple removal with the least amount of damage to the hardwood floors.

Answer
Hi Robin;I'll give you my answer to your question in just a minute. First, remember that one of the healthiest floor coverings one can have is carpet. It has a pile that traps, filters, and holds harmful soils such as track-in soils, air polutants, allergents, etc., until they are properly vacuumed away, and, on occassion, properly professionally cleaned away. Hard surfaced flooring is non-absorbent, so those harmful soils remain on the surface of hard surfaced flooring and become airborne with normal home air currents and normal foot traffic, allowing the human lung to be come the trap and filter. The true cost of any floor covering is product, installation, and maintenance over its useful life. Carpet costs less as a product. less to install, and less to maintain over its useful life. If you read many hard surfaced floor manufacturer's maintenance manuals, they suggest using area rugs (carpet), in high trafficked areas. I suggest that you consider doing that, using area rugs over proper rug pads, if you want to expose the hardwood. In today's world, ALL floor covering manufacturers are in the throes of making truly 'green' products, friendly to our environment. Of all the floor covering manufacturers, the carpet industry is the far out leader in producing 'green' products. Visit the website of The Carpet & Rug Industry, <carpet-rug.org>, to learn true health information. When you expose hard surfaced flooring to your home environment, you will have to remember that maintenance will be the very key issue in keeping your hardwood in good shape. Proper, furniture leg protectors should be used and constantly maintained by cleaning them of gritty imbedded soils, and replacing them when they begin to show signs of wear. You may have to limit the footwear used, since many hardwoods do not tollerate the use of certain types of high heels. Proper, ABSORBENT walk-off mats should be used, and constantly maintained at all entries to your home. If you have any roller caster furniture, you will need to use proper roller casters on that furniture. Hardwood comes from trees. It acts just like a tree. It will expand, contract, dent, scratch, change colors, etc., so expect that to happen.

Great care must be taken in removing staples from hardwood. Since you or I don't know what type of staple gun was used to install the pad, you need to go to several obscure areas where the pad was stapled, such as under furniture, in a closet, etc., and CAREFULLY test some removal techniques. What I suggest that that you consder using area rugs, OVER PROPER RUG PADS, in high trafficked areas and shop for those rugs and pads at a local, reputable, floor covering dealer, and NOT at one of those large home supply stores or over the internet. Depending upon your home population, including pets, and the rooms in which you would use those area rugs, you choice of pile is important. When you make your purchases, ask the dealer to give you the name and number of their best carpet installer. Speak to that installer and have the installer show you the correct tool(s) that should be used and correct method of their usage. Most likely when the pad is lifted, the stapled areas, ON PURPOSE, will be left with bits of padding still trapped under the face of the staples. When the proper tool is used to pry up the staples, pressure can be placed under the staple, but on top of the bit of pad, so the face of the hardwood would be somewhat protected. The hardwood would probably have to be properly refinished with sanding and reapplying several coats of a protective layer, such as polyurethane. That refinishing really should be done professionally. There is new equipment now in use that is quieter and collects just about all of the sawdust so it is not released into the atmosphere. Also, since polyurethane is odorous, ask the refinisher about water based coating instead of solvent based coating.

Finally, if you will get back to me with your home population, including pets, and the rooms in which you will be using the hardwood, I would be glad to give you generic specifications for the type of pile and construction for which you should shop for your area rugs, and I will be able to give you contact suggestions for proper walk-off mats and proper rug pads.

If you have any other questions, also please feel free to get back to me.

Cordially,

John Michaels

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