Removing Carpet from Stairs
In today’s post, I want to talk about removing carpet from stairs and figuring out how to fix base molding issues that occur where the stair treads and risers meet with the landing. I also have a second follow-up post about refinishing stairs that were carpeted where I address refinishing or painting/staining the hardwood stairs.
Removing the old carpet from the stairs is definitely the easy part of this project besides requiring some elbow grease. Fixing the molding can be a tad bit more difficult to figure out. I was scratching my head a few times for sure.
In the end, it’s all worth it because it’s a million times better than before and hardwood is so much easier to keep clean than carpet.
How to remove carpet from stairs
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Last spring when I installed the bamboo plank floors upstairs, the stairs started to stick out like a dirty thumb. I had re-carpeted them once already and the older the kids got the dirtier they managed to make the stairs look no matter how many times I cleaned them. They never listened to my rules about not taking food into their rooms and spilling so much stuff on the way. The occasional cat vomit on the stairs didn’t help either.
So one day I just had enough and just ripped the carpet, padding, and staples off.
Supply list for removing carpet from stairs
- pliers
- hammer
- pry bar
- flat head screwdriver or staple remover
Instructions
Removing the carpet from the stairs
First step: Rip off all the carpet to expose the carpet padding. If I couldn’t grab and hold on to the carpet corners, I used the pliers to hold on to the carpet fibers and pulled.
Second step: After that remove all the carpet padding which is attached with more staples. Use the flathead screwdriver or stole remover for that.
Third step: The carpet tack strips get removed with the pry bar or flathead screwdriver by placing either one of them under the tack strip and pushing down on the tool’s handle which pries the entire strip up. move along the length of the tack strip until the entire thing is lifted and removed.
There were so many staples. It was ridiculous and took quite some time to remove but my husband was there to help with that.
And voila your wooden stair treads are exposed and you are ready to move on to fixing the molding and patching and sanding the stair treads.
The stair treads and risers were covered in paint globs, glue, staples, nails, and so many holes.
My dear hubby did help a lot with the sanding which was such a mess but we didn’t have to use any chemicals this way. He used a belt sander, sanding pad, and a little electrical corner sander.
I filled in all the holes with the wood filler, let it dry and he sanded some more.
I’m not happy with how many knots are in the pine which really does make it look like cheap wood. I don’t even think we can make them work. They are water-stained as well. But even just in the raw sanded way, the stairs look better than with the dirty carpet.
Fixing Stair Case Molding after removing carpet from stairs
This part is a little hard to explain and it is probably better shown with photos.
The issues were the top of my stairs where we had a different depth in stair treads and were left with a gap at the top after removing the top tread where the bamboo wood flooring was going to go. Gosh, what a long sentence. let me show you:
The new bamboo tread was shorter than the old one and left a big gap. See below:
I had to also find a way to line up the molding the right way. Please see the below photo:
Let me know if you have a different way to fix a gap like this.
How to fix stair tread gaps
After doing some research I decided to go with Abatron Wood Epoxy that you can use to fill and reshape rotted wood on door and window frames. You have to mix the two components (A and B) together. I used my hands but don’t forget gloves. You end up with a nice doe that you just spread into the holes and gaps with your hands and a spatular. After letting it dry the recommended time, it is sandable, paintable, or stainable just like wood.
See how I mixed the two parts into a dough with my hands below:
It worked out really great and was the perfect solution which I will show you in a bit.
Patching stair tread staple holes
I did patch a lot of the holes with Wunderfil wood filler. It’s become my favorite. You can thin it with water which makes it so easy to spread and fill tiny staple holes. It also doesn’t shrink like other wood fillers.
Fix the staircase molding
materials
- paintable caulk (HERE)
- fishing nails
- hammer
- different variety of moldings like quarter round and base molding
- electrical or regular miter saw
- coping saw (HERE)
- angle cutting tool (HERE)
- putty knife
- face mask/dust mask
- different grit sandpaper
- electric sander
- oil bases primer (waterbased primer doesn’t cover the kots in the imperfect cheap wood)
- paint brushes
- safety goggles
- wood filler
Here you can see my photos of how I made the molding line up and how it worked out for me. Determining the right size for the angles is a little hard sometimes but my little handy angle cutting tool certainly helped with that. I should write a post about how to use that for sure.
Tip don’t forget to pre-drill the holes for your finishing nails before attaching the molding to the walls. It’s so important.
I spent many many hours with my iPad and Netflix working on these steps. That’s totally what I like doing. Am I the only one?
Make sure to caulk everything nicely at the end before you start priming.
Photos of stairs after fixing molding and removing carpet from stairs
Look at this result so far! Doesn’t it look a million times better with only the primer?
I do have to end up using oil-based primer (because the water-based primer isn’t covering good enough) and also oil-based paint or stain. That job requires open windows though and I have to wait for warmer weather.
Or I could just use an overlay product like this one HERE on the stairs. The first product is made for rounded stair treads which mine are. It’s expensive though. It would be lovely not having to paint.
Here is what I ended up with so far:
The moral of this post is that you shouldn’t be afraid to rip off that filthy carpet because it will eventually look so much better. And I absolutely love just being able to take a dustpan and brush to clean the stairs. I’m also more relaxed because I don’t have to yell at the family members for carrying around drinks and food. I could care less now.
For the second part of this story and to see what I ended up doing to finish the stairs you can read more HERE and see the end result HERE and see below.
UPDATE: Since this stair makeover I have written a blog post about how to install a carpet runner on stairs and I love this updated look so much.
Thanks for reading and don’t worry about giving your carpeted stairs a makeover because it will be worth it for sure.
Tschüß,
i think we will be redoing our icky carpeted bedrooms and your line- the moral don’t be afraid because it will eventually be so much better- stuck out at me and i needed to hear it today!
Don’t be afraid! Haha no really 😉
Carpet is so awful! I’m glad that yours is gone and I can’t wait to see what you do next 🙂
I can’t wait too LOL
Julia I did the same thing with our disgusting stair runner a few years ago. I swear I sneezed 50 million times a day until that carpet was gone. You did such an amazing job with this project. Isn’t it crazy how wood fill, caulking and paint can hide all sorts of flaws and weird carpentry issues?? I find with every carpentry project I do there are odd little angles and spaces and whatnot, but after everything is filled and painted they disappear. Your stairs look so pretty from your living room. You must be so happy you took this huge project on!
Yes caulk and wood filler are an amazing thing! I do love looking at them now
Thank you, thank you for this post! I was really hoping you’d explain what you found under the carpet and the pictures were spot on. My cat has made my stairwell smell like old lady house but I’ve been too afraid to rip up the carpet. I’m regrouting my shower this week but next week I’m ripping up that carpet.
Good luck with it! I’m sure you’ll like it much better after
The only thing I would worry about with painting them is the paint wearing off where people walk. Unless you put a clear coat over the paint?
I totally agree that worries me too and I was planning on a clear coat no matter what. But paint probably would wear off
Thank you for your honesty and sharing your process – it’s really refreshing in the “everything is easy and the results are PERFECT” world home design. Makes feel better about doing my projects in stages and living in the process.
Oh it’s not all easy. It’s quite frustrating most of the time and takes forever 😉
I’m glad we’re not the only ones working on stairs. My husband took the day off to paint the risers. The original stairs were so bad that he tore them out and started from scratch ( it’s been an ongoing project since September). I may need to tell him about that epoxy stuff because there are gaps where he couldn’t get a perfect cut on a riser or tread. I think the hardest part is figuring out how we’re going to fix the gap between the wall and stringer. The dry wall is not even. We’re pretty proud of our stairs! Could I send you some pictures?
You sure could! Good luck with the gaps.
Hi Julia – Your staircase looks fabulous. How you fixed the gaps looks amazing. I removed the carpet from the stairs in my PA house. Now I am in the process of doing it again in the SC house. Although I just had to remove a runner, not upholstered carpet over the entire staircase.
Thanks for showing us how you used the wood epoxy. It is just want I need to fix a few gaps and holes in the flooring in my new house.
Yay! It looks amazing just with the carpet removed! I’m so jealous that you had actual wood underneath there – we have that nasty OSB under the carpet on our stairs, so it would be a MAJOR replacement if I ripped up the carpet! Hopefully one day 😀
I’m not sure how this would fit in with the flooring on the landing, but I’m always crazy for black stair treads with white risers, and the black and white combo would fit in so well with your living room! My two cents 🙂
I love the look of black and really considered it. But the darker the color the more the dirt shows and I do have a white cat and light grey cat. I think that wouldn’t be a good mix unfortunately. I wish!
Julia, you have done such a phenomenal job on those stairs already. Even if you don’t do another thing, it looks fabulous. I can’t wait to see what you decide 🙂
You are my role model. Your stairs are just so good and thanks Katja
Girl you rock!! That looks amazing!
Thank you! I’m so glad that some of the worst parts are over
I might be the odd ball here but I honestly like the natural wood…I think your other options would look good too thought! The 2nd to last picture looks like it blends in perfectly with the flooring at the bottom of the stairs. When making these big decisions I just live with it for awhile until I have my aha! moment. It will come to you.
I really want to rip out the carpet on our stairs, however, we have carpet at the top and bottom that will stay in place. The basement carpet is in great shape so no way am I pulling it up. The upstairs carpet really needs to be replaced but we have to wait awhile for that project and I want wood floors upstairs. My delima is that I have a BEIGE cheap-o large tile landing 1/2 way down the stairs. I don’t like the tile but I’m really at a loss as to what I should do with it since it goes with all of the tile in the house – gotta love builder grade crap. It’s in my mudroom, 2 bathrooms, entryway, and this landing, on the fireplaces, and similar accents in kitchen backsplash & bathrooms. I hate it!!!
That’s exactly my plan to just live with it for a little. Usually always works. Hope you can figure out your situation 😉
This looks like a lot more work than I would have originally thought but nice instructions. I’m looking forward to giving it a shot this weekend so wish me luck.
Oh it’s definitely a lot of work but so so worth it in the end. And I’m spending less time cleaning the carpet on the stairs
Wow, what an improvement already! AND you haven’t given me the boost I need to get back to work on mine. Thanks!
🙂
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WOW Julia! This looks AMAZING! How did you learn how to do this? Care to share which tutorials you’ve used to do this? My stairs are U-G-L-Y and I so badly want to do this!
I didn’t really use any tutorial so far since I just ripped it up and went in steps how I usually refinish furniture. Lets see when I’ll finally get to the part2 of the stairs. I have no desire to do it and they already look ok 😉
To solve your problem of not being able to use the stairs, just paint alternating treads. Not saying the cat or kids will figure out which ones to use, but at least you and your hubby will know ;))
We have three cats so that might really be difficult 😉