A carpet gripper also referred to as a tack strip is a long strip of wood about 1 4 inch thick and 1 inch wide that contains several sharp pins or tacks.
Taking up carpet grippers.
If you are trying to salvage the floor underneath make sure you do not cut grooves in the floor with the knife.
Pull up a few feet of carpet and fold it over.
I used a smaller chisel but i could have used anything of similar size and solid such as a screwdriver or piece of wood or metal.
One way to do this is to lift the carpet away from the floor as you cut.
A chisel with a fine sharp end that could get under the carpet gripper.
Continue pulling up carpet a few feet at a time and cutting it into easy to handle strips.
Fold back about 3 ft.
A lot of.
Use a utility knife with a sharp new blade to cut through the carpet backing.
It depends on how much of the carpet you re going to pull up.
Roll or fold the strip secure with duct tape and remove it from the room.
Use a utility knife or carpet knife to slice the carpet into manageable strips and roll the strips up as you go.
Then grab the carpet by hand and continue to pull it up along an entire wall.
Carpet is stretched over tack strips using a kick stretcher or a power stretcher so if you pull the whole carpet it you risk losing that stretch.
Keep both hands on the knife to avoid cutting a free hand.
Another item to use as a fulcrum under the first chisel.
Carpet is installed using glue or tack strips.
To detach the carpet from the tack strip that holds the carpet in place along walls start in a corner.
You can pull carpet up off the tacking strip to do some work.
Just grab the carpet with pliers and pull.
Of carpet and cut it into easy to handle strips photo 1.
Carpet installers use strong mastic that doesn t deteriorate when they glue down carpets and they often use more than is really needed both of which spell bad news for you when you want to remove the carpet.
How to install carpet grippers.
Pulling up the carpet and scraping underneath with a paint scraper to beak the glue bond is tedious work and wetting the carpet to loosen the adhesive may cause it to break into pieces.
How to lift a carpet up without damaging it.