Every new floor starts with getting the old one out properly. It is the least glamorous part of the job and the part that most determines whether the new floor performs, because a new surface is only ever as good as what it is sitting on. We take out carpet, pad, tack strip, glued vinyl, laminate and stubborn adhesive, deal with what we find underneath, and haul it all away. It is included in what we quote rather than appearing as a surprise once the furniture has been moved.
Every layer left down raises the finished floor. Add half an inch and interior doors start to catch, the bottom of the door casing no longer meets the floor cleanly, and every threshold in the house stands proud enough to catch a toe.
In the older railway-town housing around East Prairie and Scott City it is common to find two or three generations of flooring already stacked up. Adding a fourth is how a house ends up with doors planed off at the bottom and thresholds nobody can walk over comfortably.
The bigger issue is that whatever is wrong with the old floor becomes wrong with the new one. A soft spot stays soft. A squeak stays. A seam in old sheet vinyl telegraphs through a new plank as a visible line within a year.
Taking it up costs labour. Leaving it down costs the floor. We would rather quote the honest number and have the floor last.
The easiest removal. Carpet and pad come up quickly; the work is in the tack strip around the perimeter and the hundreds of staples left behind by the pad. Both have to come out completely, because a single missed staple will telegraph through a vinyl plank.
Straightforward, since a floating floor is not fastened down. The care goes into the perimeter, where the shoe mould has to come off without damaging the baseboard if it is being reused.
This is the one that takes the time. The material itself comes up in pieces; the adhesive stays, and it has to come off or be encapsulated properly, because a new floor laid over old adhesive residue is a floor with an unpredictable base.
Old resilient flooring in houses of a certain age can also contain materials that need specialist handling. If we suspect it, we will stop and tell you rather than sand into it, and testing is the right next step.
The heaviest and dustiest of the four. Tile comes off in pieces and the thinset bed under it has to be ground back to a flat, sound base. It is genuinely hard work and it is why tile removal is priced separately from lifting a carpet.
Straightforward, since a floating floor is not fastened down.
With the old floor gone the subfloor is visible for the first time in decades, and that is the only sensible moment to deal with it. Loose panels get re-fastened, squeaks get screwed down to the joist, and soft or water-damaged sections get cut out and replaced.
None of this is visible in the finished job, which is exactly why it gets skipped by people working to the lowest possible number. We will show you what we have found and what it needs before we cover it up.
Different floors want different tolerances. Carpet is forgiving. A rigid click-lock plank is not, and tile is less forgiving still. Once the base is exposed we check it against what you have chosen, and where levelling compound is needed it goes in as its own line.
Removal is dusty work, particularly tile and adhesive. We contain it as far as is practical and clean up properly, and we would rather set your expectations honestly than promise a dust-free demolition that nobody can actually deliver.
Everything we take out leaves with us. You are not left with a pile of old carpet on the drive waiting for a trip to the tip.
It is quoted as part of the job so you can see it, rather than being discovered afterwards. Lifting carpet is straightforward; tile and glued-down vinyl take considerably longer and are priced accordingly. Either way the figure is in the written estimate.
Sometimes, if what is down is sound, flat, dry and there is only one layer of it. Often the honest answer is no, because layering raises the floor height and you inherit every fault underneath. We will tell you which situation you are in.
Yes, all of it. Removal and haul-away are part of the job. You are not left with a pile of old carpet and tack strip to deal with.
We stop and show you before we cover it. Soft or water-damaged subfloor gets cut out and replaced, and we will price that as an addition rather than quietly floor over it — covering it up only means dealing with it again later, at greater cost.
Carpet removal is fairly clean. Tile and adhesive removal is genuinely dusty, and anyone who promises otherwise is overselling. We contain it as far as is practical, clean up afterwards, and tell you in advance which kind of job yours is.
Free in-home estimate, clear pricing, and a crew that shows up when we say we will.
