Can we just rip the carpet off??

[TraLaLaaa]

We've bought a house, moved in 4 weeks ago and the stair carpet smells revolting - we suspect cat pee. I've used all the usual products and hired a rug doctor cleaner - it's not helping.

Do you think we can just rip up the carpet and live with stairs without it until we can organise new ones to be fitted?! Will it likely be safe underneath? DC are 5 and 10...

Yes?....i have lived for years in houses with no carpet...it will be noisy on the stairs however..

It might have gripper rods on each stair, in which case you’d need to take those up too then pay to replace them, or risk standing on them.

Yes, we moved into a house with damp cigarette poisoned horrible old carpet. It was gone by the end of a bloody awful week, which we spent skipping it all. Kids will need to wear shoes in the house for a while, but it isn't generally awful. You will probably need to bang in old nails and fingertip search for dangerous splinters and sand them back.

We never bothered going any further than that, painted the boards a nice colour and bought cheap carpet with the edges bound so it is basically big mats. It wouldn't work on stairs but is comfortable and cost effective.

Yes - just pull up the gripper rods too and give everything a sand then wash them down. You could give them a lick of paint at some point if you want to make them look nicer without the expense of a carpet / runner going down.

If it's not a carpet you want to try having professionally cleaned, then rip it up and remove the gripperrods.

So,silly question, but what will we need? Brute strength and a hammer? Are gripper rods easy to remove?

Gripper rods are very easy to lift, but be careful as they are (obviously) full of very sharp pins.

It's quite fun OP ,really satisfying .Have you got a claw hammer ,one with a fork at the end .You lever up nails with the forked bit .

skip to 6.02

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watch out for black powdery disintegrating underlay .

I agree with @peridito - I think you’ll find it quite satisfying!! Good luck, enjoy!

Rip it out it's fairly easy but if the wee has soaked through the carpet the smell will still be there and you might have to remove and change the floorboards

Your floor boards maybe need neutralising smell wise . The smell will go though

When we finally got rid of the disgusting old smelly carpets in this house it made such a difference! New carpets made the place feel like new. I wouldn't bother getting your current carpet cleaned.

Stanley knife, a good solid one is handy for cutting the carpet into smaller pieces, it's surprisingly tough to cut through the backing.

Depending on what kind of underlay they used and how long it's been down for it could have basically turned to dust under the carpet, so close doors to any rooms that are near the stairs and if needed wear a mask.

Well luckily the previous owners seem to have put down very good underlay- called Cloud 9. Very thick so although the pee had gone through to it, the wood underneath seems unscathed. Think it's been down for over 25 years!!

Lots of staples as well as huge numbers of gripper rods. Put done now - all gone - and sanded. Such a relief - only took 3 days! 🤣

Well done @TraLaLaaa !! And in this heat !