Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Removing old carpet

17 February 2012

Re: [DIY] Removing old carpet

I live in sunny Florida, and here it seems prices are cheap for carpet layers. I just got new carpeting, the lowest price carpet, and I got the carpet, plus furniture removal, plus installation and ripping up of the old carpet for about $700 -- two big rooms. The price was about $1.40 a foot, everything included, including the underlay. I got the berber carpet, I'm kind of sorry I got it, but I didn't want to spend the money (about 5X the price) for tile installation. The reason I'm sorry I got the berber is because the furniture leaves marks the minute it sits on the carpet. I think it's the padding which is very cushiony. the carpet guys recommended another type of carpet, but I was insistent on the berber because I wanted it to match the carpet in the other room. I think I made a mistake, but it's done now and I'm not going to change it. I would have rather had tile or laminate, believe it or not, laminate package goes around here for about $2 a sq. ft. everything included, but I still chose to go with carpeting. Nothin's perfect.

If you do it yourself (to remove the carpeting), they have hooks that tear up the carpet as you go. Also, you have to wear heavy gloves because the carpet backing is very hard on the hands.

From: John and Carmen Stuart <johnandcarmen@bellsouth.net>
To: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 10:00 PM
Subject: Re: [DIY] Removing old carpet

Jan, my husband and I installed laminate flooring ourselves and it was not all that hard. Scatter rugs add charm and allow for so many ways to tie in color and pattern.

I think you might also consider some of the synthetic tiles. Everything you need to install can be rented.

I am so much happier with dry mopping instead of vacuuming.

carmen

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On Feb 16, 2012, at 8:10 PM, Dale S wrote:

You just reminded me how glad we are that we are finally back to hard wood floors. They may need to be refinished but things do slide.
Dale in the Flat Lands:  The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it; but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill     
Jan Flood wrote:

Not only did I get sticker shock pricing new carpet I learned they charge to remove the old carpet. Over $400 to tear it up and haul it away. We've torn up an individual room but never an entire house. Since we're going to be moving the furniture around ourselves I'm thinking it might be worth it just to pay them to do the dirty work with the carpet. I'm stuck on how to do this. Move half the furniture to one end of the house, have them come in an tear up the old and lay the new carpet. Then move the furniture to those rooms while they tear up and lay the front of the house? We have a lot of heavy furniture and I hate to do everything twice. Anyone have experience with this? Do they normally tear up the old carpet and lay the new the same day? I thought I'd clean the subfloors good before they put down new carpet, but is that even necessary? Just vacuum good?

DH didn't think he was up to the stress and work of moving but I've got plenty of stress figuring out how to get all this done in the next six weeks. Although I really wanted property again, it made good sense to stay here and update everything. On the plus side, I've found someone in town to do the drapes so all I have to do is order the fabric. And, I found a sofa that will work for less than I anticipated paying. The down side is I'm having an anxiety attack about laying out so much money at one time. We've put this off for seven years thinking we'd find a new place and I'm afraid if we just don't go ahead and do it, we'll keep putting it off. We have a lot of family coming to visit this year starting in April and I want to have the interior done before then.