You’re certainly looking forward to finally receiving your new flooring. Be it a new carpet or hardwood flooring, you have one obstacle left: the old carpet needs to be removed. Unfortunately, you can’t just put a new flooring onto the old one. If only it was that easy. You’d eventually end up with a floor that’s a foot high and that’d certainly cause more problems. Hence, the only way to new flooring is to remove the old one. Ask jiffyjunk.com if they could help with your carpet removal.
Carpet removal costs
To give you a rough idea of how much a carpet removal costs, we can tell you upfront that it ranges between 1 – 1.50 $ per square foot. Those costs don’t only include the labor, but also the clean-up afterward as well as the disposal. Albeit the carpet on a staircase is most likely not as much as for a room, it’s a bit more difficult to remove. As a rule of thumb, you can say that hardly any carpet removal is done within minutes.
Avoid unnecessary hassle
You have to consider some points, such as the shape of your room. If there are several angles, a carpet removal guy will have to pull it up from several corners instead of just one. The same principle basically applies to stairs. Carpets are attached to stairs not just from one corner, but often at least from two. With the extra labor, removing carpet from stairs requires a little more effort.
But you want to save money. Here’s what you do:
Before you choose your new flooring…
There are many benefits from visiting several shops to find your best new flooring. Big box stores often lack service and can’t provide you with the proper consultation. Apart from that, small and independent stores often offer carpet removal for free or at least for very little. Yet alone from this point of view, it’s probably wise to find an all-inclusive offer by a seller nearby. It will save you a lot of effort and, of course, save you the hassle of comparing prices from several services for carpet removal. The least you could find out with the seller of your new flooring would be if they’d take the remnants of your old carpet. If you can’t find one that offers free carpet removal, most will at least handle the disposal for free.
Find the cheapest carpet removal service
Another factor that comes into play with the costs of carpet removal is the area you live in. The lower the costs of living are in your area, the cheaper the carpet removal is going to be. However, no matter where you live, there always are several services to choose from. None of them works for the exact same price. Hence, it’s more than worthwhile to collect as many estimates as you can find. To make sure you still get the best price for the same service, make sure to look out for these features:
- The carpet removal service is insured – In case of any damages or injuries that could occur during the carpet removal, it’s covered by insurance. This is especially important if you have a radiant heating floor system.
- They are experienced – You certainly don’t want a team of carpet removal guys in your home that doesn’t know what they’re doing. In that event, you could as well do it yourself and save even more money.
- The carpet removal service has modern equipment – Modern equipment makes the job a lot easier which adds to the experienced team.
- Cleanup is included – Not everyone may bother about this one and the mess they leave behind is probably dealt with within a jiffy if you had to do it. Depending on your schedule, you may want to make sure the cleanup is included.
- Disposal is included – This is another one for the small print. If the disposal fees are not included in an estimate, you are likely to end up with a more expensive service than planned.
You do it yourself
Without any further ado, it’s rather obvious that you’d save the most if you did the carpet removal on your own. Be aware, though, that it will require a lot of effort. Maybe even some blood, sweat, and tears. Ok, let’s better pass the thing with the blood. As long as you’re wearing a good pair of heavy-duty gloves, you’ll avoid bleeding cuts. But you won’t be able to avoid sweat and also maybe some tears. Both are part of the job with each stubborn carpet that doesn’t seem to want to come off the floor. You’ll need a couple of tools for it:
- Pliers
- Pry bar
- Carpet knife
- Dust mask
You basically start at the farthest point in the room. Pry up the carpet in one corner until you can grab it with the pliers. As soon you can grab it with your hands, you just pull it up and cut it into strips as you keep going. That’s going to make the carpet easier to handle. Most people already face problems with prying up the carpet. It’s able to tack strips to keep it in place which, in turn, are attached with hundreds of nails and staples. To pull up the carpet from underneath these tack strips requires a lot of muscle power. Be careful not to break your back. Depending on your old carpet and the flooring, it might not be as easy to pull it up at all.
Final Words
You’ll have to scratch that off bit by bit. In a worst-case scenario, you’ll need a solvent for stubborn glue. Once you’ve managed the carpet removal, you’ll only have to schedule a junk removal. That will surely also cost you a fee. But if your vehicle is not large enough to bring the carpet to a disposal site, you’re better off with a collection.
