Removing Carpet From Stair Platforms

Removing carpet from your stairs may reveal an old, traditional wood surface that complements your decor better than the carpet did. If so, you'll want to pull the carpet from the stairs carefully so you don’t damage the floor underneath. If you are maintaining the carpet throughout your home and are removing it only from the stairs, consider saving scrap from the stairs to patch any areas of the carpet that are stained or otherwise damaged.

Gloves
Goggles
Dust mask
Screwdriver
Hammer
Pry bar

Instructions

- 1
  Put on gloves, goggles and a dust mask to protect yourself from dust, nails and tacks.
- 2
  Open windows to ventilate the area. Old carpeting has a lot of dirt in it that can enter your lungs.
- 3
  Wedge a screwdriver between the corner of a stair platform and the wall and pry up that corner of carpet.
- 4
  Pull the carpet up and off the stair platform. Cut the carpet so you can remove it from the stair spindles and carry it away in small sections. Keep some large sections, however, if you want to use them to patch other areas of the carpet.
- 5
  Continue pulling the carpet up and off each stair platform.
- 6
  Remove the carpet padding in the same way.
- 7
  Hammer a pry bar in between the tack strip and the stair surface. Pry the tack strip off stair platform and carefully throw it away. Do this on each stair platform.
- 8
  Pull any nails off the stair platforms with the nail-removal side of the hammer.
- 9
  Pry staples off the wooden stair platforms with a screwdriver. Work until the staples are all removed.

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