Carpet Removal by Installation Type
Wall-to-Wall Carpet and Pad
Most bedrooms and living rooms have stretch-in carpet hooked over tack strips along the walls, with a foam pad stapled to the subfloor underneath. HomeGuide calls tack-less stretch-in carpet the easiest kind to pull up. The crew cuts it into strips, rolls and tapes it, then pulls the pad and the staples. Rusty tack strips cost about $0.40 to $0.50 per linear foot to remove. If new carpet is going in, the installer can often reuse sound strips, so ask before they're torn out.
Glued-Down Carpet
Glued carpet is the slowest and most expensive to remove. HomeGuide lists $0.40 to $0.95 per square foot for the carpet alone, plus $0.35 to $0.85 if there's a pad glued under it. Most of the work comes afterward: the floor has to be scraped clean of residue, and that scraping can damage the subfloor. If you're planning hardwood or vinyl, have the flooring installer look at the floor before you decide who does the tear-out.
Basement Carpet
Basement carpet over concrete is usually glued down. HomeGuide puts it at $0.95 to $1.55 per square foot, with wet carpet from a flooded or moldy basement at the top of that range, $1.20 to $1.55. Soaked carpet and pad are far heavier than dry, so say so when you ask for a price. Mold cleanup is a separate trade from hauling.
Stair Carpet and Runners
Stairs take the most time per square foot. Every tread and riser has its own staples, and sometimes glue. A crew removing stair carpet so the treads can be refinished has to pull every staple, which adds labor. Count the stairs before you call, since stairs are priced per step.
Area Rugs and Remnants
Loose rugs aren't a tear-out job. They're single items, and a clean one may not need hauling at all: Goodwill takes rugs, but it lists carpeting with flooring and other building materials it can't accept. See donation pickup for what else local charities refuse.
Why Clarksville homeowners call Clarksville Junk Haulers
- Your request goes to one local hauler, not a call list
- Ask for the all-in price before anything is loaded
- Free to call; you pay only the hauler, for the job you agree to
- Tell us about stairs, heavy items or a deadline up front
What Moves the Price of Carpet Removal
How it was installed
Stretch-in is cheapest to remove, stapled costs a little more, and glued costs the most.Furniture
HomeGuide puts moving furniture out of a room at $25 to $75 per room. Empty the room yourself and that charge goes away.Disposal
If disposal is billed separately, HomeGuide lists $0.45 to $0.60 per square foot, or $50 to $100 a job. Ask whether it's already in the per-foot price.Tear-out or haul-away
Pulling it up yourself and leaving taped rolls by the garage turns the job into a simple volume pickup.
Getting Carpet Ready for Pickup
If you pull it up yourself, cut it into strips a person can carry, roll each one tight and tape it. Bag the pad separately and collect the tack strips in a box, nails down. Old carpet from a remodel is construction debris, so a truckload goes to the construction and demolition landfill, not the household one.
See construction debris removal for that landfill's hours and fees, and for the drywall, cabinets and tile that come out in the same remodel.