Removing Glued Carpet from Wood Stairs

[Karen C.]

Just looking for some tips on the best way to remove glued down carpet from wood stairs. I know the stairs are wood because the carpet from the landing and two steps below it has been removed by someone other than me.

Should all the carpet come off the stair and the adhesive be left? The adhesive is on the edge of the stair nosing and the bottom of each stair. It seems pretty secure, not sure how I would pull it off. I know other tools are needed, like a cutting blade, hammer, pry bar or flat head screwdriver for removing tack strips.

I know to use adhesive remover but do I use that on the carpet or try to get the carpet separated from the adhesive then use it on left over adhesive? Since the carpet is so tightly glued down I was thinking some remover would need to go on the carpet.

Please help!

[JD Martin]

Pull all the carpet and use adhesive remover on what's left. No remover on the carpet itself, that will just make a mess and waste product. The runner is probably stapled/brad nailed to the wood steps just under the rounded lip of the tread and at the bottom of each riser, if there's no padding underneath. If it's padded, there will be tack strips nailed to the steps that hold the carpet in place. 

[Karen C.]

Thank you, now I need to find a way to pull up that carpet. It's really stuck on there!

[Steve Babiak]

If you have wood stairs that you are looking to refinish, then at some point there will be a sanding process to get to bare wood. If you are carpeting over wood stairs, then it's common to staple carpet on stairs and the carpet will cover over a lot of irregularity - so you might not have to go crazy removing adhesive.