Ripping Out Old Carpet on Stairs

Put on gloves to protect yourself from the tacks you must encounter as you rip out the old carpet on your stairs. Loosen a corner of the carpet on the very bottom step by inserting a screwdriver underneath the edge of the carpet and holding onto this carpet corner using pliers.

Pull the carpet up off of the tack strips located underneath the carpeting using your pliers. Remove the carpet’s metal edge trim strip if previously installed to hold the carpet down. To do this, pry the strip upward and away from the carpet using a pry bar.

Remove the first section of carpeting from your stairs’ first step, as carpet layers typically lay stair carpeting in sections rather than laying one huge stretch of carpet, which makes handling the carpet easier. Discard the first carpet section.

Remove the next section of carpet on the next step by pulling up a corner piece of the carpet using a screwdriver and pliers again. Continue doing this for each step until you have pulled up all of the carpeting on the stairs.

Take out the staples present in the carpet padding located underneath your former stair carpet, using the claw of your hammer or a floor scraper. Discard of these staples.

Pull up all of the carpet padding on your stairs by hand, noting that the carpet installer likely installed the padding in sections as well.

Force the flat part of a pry bar underneath the tack strips located on the bottom part of the vertical sides of each step. Tap the pry bar further underneath each tack strip by hitting it with a hammer. Pull each tack strip away from its corresponding step using the pry bar and your fingers. Discard these tack strips carefully, as the tacks are sharp.