With the help of the right products and a little bit of patience you ll be well on your way to restoring your hardwood to its original glory.
Taking up carpet.
One way to do this is to lift the carpet away from the floor as you cut.
Continue pulling up carpet a few feet at a time and cutting it into easy to handle strips.
Start at one corner of your room and try to pull up the carpet.
Then grab the carpet by hand and continue to pull it up along an entire wall.
Pull up a few feet of carpet and fold it over.
Lifting up a carpet is a lot easier with the help of an assistant.
Learning how to clean old hardwood floors after removing carpet is easier than most people think it simply takes a little bit more time than a traditional floor clean.
The carpet will be connected to the concrete surface via a series of wooden strips to which the carpet is tacked.
Thus you shouldn t have to remove the baseboards when taking out smelly carpet.
Pull back a corner of the carpet using a pair of pliers.
If it won t come up then cut a small 6 inch by 6 inch square in the corner with your utility knife.
Use a utility knife with a sharp new blade to cut through the carpet backing.
Just grab the carpet with pliers and pull.
Keep both hands on the knife to avoid cutting a free hand.
Carpet glue is an incredibly strong adhesive designed to fix rolls of carpet to concrete floors.
Fold back about 3 ft.
Remove this small piece of carpet and then pull up on the larger section.
Though incredibly effective this specialty glue is also notorious because it leaves behind sticky residue that is hard to remove with traditional removal methods.
If you are trying to salvage the floor underneath make sure you do not cut grooves in the floor with the knife.
Of carpet and cut it into easy to handle strips photo 1.
Roll or fold the strip secure with duct tape and remove it from the room.
Use a utility knife or carpet knife to slice the carpet into manageable strips and roll the strips up as you go.