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Rip up and haul away the old flooring
This is Step 7: Rip up and haul away the old flooring, in our blog series of 10 Easy Steps to New Flooring. We hope this explains the process of having new flooring installed in detail to alleviate any questions or concerns you may have. The Carpet Guys make every aspect of your installation as easy as possible. We want you to enjoy getting your new flooring. If you’re just joining us, make sure to check out these links in the earlier part of the series:
- The Design Consultant and Free Estimates
- Measuring Your Space for Free
- Making Your Appointment for Install
- The Installation Call
- The Installer Arrives
- Moving Your Furniture
Remove the Moldings
The first thing the installer will need to do is remove all the moldings around the room of your old flooring. Though they will do it carefully, they cannot guarantee they can retain all your moldings for reinstallation. Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with the installers so much as the age of your home.
If your home is older, the moldings become dry and brittle. This happens because the molding goes through a heating and aging process, especially in the winter months when there’s added heat in the home. As they remove them, sometimes solid wood moldings are salvageable. If you have foam moldings, they may have lost integrity and break into several pieces. Also, if there is a glued-down, vinyl wall-base there may be damage to the drywall. The installer will do the best they can to minimize any damage so new moldings will hide it.
Remove Carpet
After all the moldings have been removed, they will start to pull your old carpet from the tack strip. A tack strip is a four-foot-long, one-inch-wide piece of wood with angled tacks facing upwards. This tack strip is what they “hook” the backing of the carpet onto to hold it in place. Since the tack strip is along the perimeter of the room and doesn’t usually see wear-and-tear, it can sometimes be reused for the new carpet installation. But, if the tacks have been crushed by the feet of a sofa over the past 10 years, they may need to be replaced.
“When I had my flooring replaced, the installers pulled up the old carpet and found hardwood underneath. The hardwood was not in bad shape, but it was in my family room. The place where my kids would wrestle on the floor. Where I would sit and work on projects to spread out. Where my dog would cozy up next to us watching tv. I didn’t want hardwood in that room. So, we still chose to carpet over it. The installers were wonderful, making sure that I knew my options before they continued with the installation.”
– Current Carpet Guys Customer
There is no way to know what’s underneath old flooring until it’s removed. First, they will cut the old carpet as they pulled it out into three-foot sections, roll it, and tape it. Then, they’ll either load it into their truck to haul it away or they can carry it to the curb for trash pick-up.
Remove Glue-Down Floor
It’s not as easy as carpet to remove old, glued-down flooring. It will be very physical with scraping and pulling. Once the subfloor is exposed they may find it needs work. Again, they can’t know the condition of the subfloor until this point. They may find mold if there was any water damage or seepage. The subfloor may be bowed. Which can happen from the home settling or moisture coming from the basement or crawl space. Sometimes the installer can fix the floor. Or, you may need a contractor to do repairs before the flooring can be installed.
Sometimes, depending on what kind of flooring you’re having installed, the new flooring may be float over the old, glued-down floor.
Remove Floor Tile
If you have old-fashioned, square, tiles the installers can use a prybar, long-handled floor scraper, and a chisel with a hammer. This is a loud and laborious removal process, as well. You will be so glad someone else is removing it. They pile all the broken pieces into buckets and haul them to a large garbage can in their truck. Depending on the square footage involved, this may be the longest part of the rip up process.
In a whole house flooring installation, it could take three men a full day to just rip up and haul away your old flooring. This is a type of major demolition. The Carpet Guys installers will impress you! You won’t have to do anything. A tough job like this can’t be any easier than just a phone call…855-4-MY-GUYS (855-469-4897). You can also fill out the Free In-Home Estimate form and The Carpet Guys will send a Design Consultant to your home to answer all your questions if these blogs don’t help!
