Stair Carpet Removal in Caldwell

Stairs carpet differently than a bedroom or living room floor. Every tread is stapled on its own, the pad is usually glued or tacked right into the nosing, and most runs have a tack strip at the top and bottom of each flight. That's true whether you're in one of the Queen Anne or craftsman homes near Old Town and the College of Idaho, or a newer two-story out in Heritage Meadows or Mandalay Ranch.

Because stairs are narrow and awkward to work in, rushing the job is where most of the damage happens.

Where people go wrong on stairs

Pulling carpet off a staircase looks simple from the top of the stairs, but a few habits cause most of the damage we see.

• Prying carpet up before pulling the tack strip first, which tears the nosing or splinters the tread edge
• Yanking pad off in one motion instead of scraping it, which strips the finish off original wood underneath
• Missing staples tucked into the corner where the tread meets the riser
• Not covering the handrail and wall corners, which get scuffed when carpet rolls get walked down
• Leaving tack strip nails standing instead of pulling or hammering them flat right away

What's usually under the carpet here

What you find under stair carpet in Caldwell depends a lot on when the house was built. The historic homes around Steunenberg and Old Town, many from the 1890s through the 1920s, often have solid wood stair treads underneath that carpet from decades of remodels. If those aren't too beat up, they're usually worth keeping and refinishing rather than covering back up.

Homes from the 1940s through the 1990s in North Caldwell more often have plywood treads under the carpet, which aren't built to be shown bare. And in the newer subdivisions on the edges of town, stairs are typically built on OSB from the start, so there's nothing underneath worth saving. That changes how a job gets sorted: old-growth wood gets set aside, plywood and OSB go straight to the disposal pile, and any padding or tack strip gets pulled separate from the carpet itself.

Where the old carpet goes

Carpet pulled off stairs in Caldwell generally ends up at Pickles Butte Sanitary Landfill, the Canyon County landfill off Missouri Ave south of Nampa. It takes construction and demolition debris from Canyon County residents, which covers old carpet and pad.

Because the landfill sorts by material, it helps to separate carpet from pad and pull tack strips out ahead of time rather than hauling it all as one tangled load. Loads need to be covered and secured on the way in, and the site has posted hours worth checking before you plan a trip out there yourself.

A stair carpet job goes a lot smoother when the tack strips come up first, the treads underneath get a look before anything's tossed, and the old material is sorted on the way out rather than dumped in one pile. Boise Carpet Removal handles that sorting as part of the job. Call for a free estimate if you'd rather not deal with the stairs yourself.