Carpet offers many benefits not found in other types of flooring, including enhanced comfort, noise reduction, and unmatched warmth. It’s also a sustainable flooring choice — old carpet is recycled into railroad ties, roofing shingles, plastic automotive parts and soundproofing materials.
Carpet doesn’t last forever, though. The average lifespan of carpet is between 5 and 15 years, though high-quality carpet may last longer with routine cleaning and maintenance and lower foot traffic. When carpet has reached the end of its useful life, it should be removed and replaced with new flooring. Modernize created this guide to carpet removal costs to help homeowners better understand the removal process and factors that can increase the cost of carpet removal.
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Benefits of Carpet
- Beauty
- Warmth & Comfort
- Cost
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Downsides of Carpet
- Limited Lifespan
- Shows Wear Over Time
- Often Needs Professional Cleaning
How Much Does Carpet Removal Cost?
The cost for carpet removal can vary greatly by flooring installation contractors. Homeowners may pay between $1 and $5 per square foot depending on where they live, difficulty of removal, disposal fees, and whether the contractor has to move furniture from rooms prior to removal.
Removal is the first step in the process of upgrading worn and unsightly carpet. Flooring installation contractors use several different methods of determining carpet removal costs, including:
- Hourly
- Square footage
- Set fee
Flooring contractors often charge for carpet removal based on the square footage of a given room or part of the home since they know how much labor is involved, as well as the cost to dispose of your old carpet. The table below shows estimated carpet removal costs by room size:
| Size of Room | Expected Cost |
|---|---|
| 10x12 (120 sq. ft.) | $120–$600 |
| 12x12 (136 sq. ft.) | $136–$680 |
| 16x16 (256 sq. ft.) | $256–$1,280 |
| 20x20 (400 sq. ft.) | $400–$2,000 |
Carpet removal costs can escalate quickly if homeowners are charged at the high end of the cost range and are upgrading the carpet in multiple rooms. Having a flooring contractor move furniture out of rooms prior to installation involves more labor and will bump up removal costs as well.
Homeowners may be able to reduce the cost of carpet removal by requesting a deal on removal and disposal, especially when they are installing new carpet in several different rooms or parts of the house. Homeowners on a budget also may be able to rip up and dispose of old carpet themselves and avoid removal fees altogether.
What Factors Affect Carpet Removal Cost?
The cost of carpet removal depends on a variety of factors. Here are some of the most common issues that affect the cost of carpet removal:
Room Location and Size
It’s typically easier to remove carpet from a modest-sized bedroom that’s empty of furniture than more difficult areas of the home, such as stairways or living rooms that have large sectional couches that need to be moved out of the way.
Installation Method
There are three methods of carpet installation:
- Stretch-in
- Glue down
- Double glue down
Stretch-in carpet installation is the most common type of carpet installation, as well as the easiest for carpet removal. Stretch-in carpet uses tack strips that are nailed down or glued along the wall edges, with a pad installed underneath the carpet to improve comfort, insulation and noise dampening. Ripping up stretch-in carpet is the least labor-intensive removal process.
Glue down is more common for commercial carpet installation, as well as for basements with concrete floors and lesser-used areas of the home since there’s no pad underneath the carpet. Double glue down, meanwhile, involves gluing a pad to the floor then gluing the carpet to the pad. Double glue down is much more labor intensive for installation and removal.
Disposal of Old Carpet
Carpet disposal costs are typically “baked in” to any removal and installation quotes from flooring contractors. Disposal fees can vary greatly by contractor, as well as by geographic location and type of disposal facility. Your carpet installer should have more information about how you are being charged to dispose of old carpet.
6 Signs You Might Need Carpet Removal
The lifespan of carpet largely depends on how well it’s maintained, and how much foot traffic it receives over the years — heavily traveled carpet will eventually show wear no matter how well it’s maintained.
Here are six signs that it’s time to remove and replace worn carpet:
Wear Marks
Commercial carpet cleaning companies are magicians when it comes to cleaning stains and refreshing carpet. Nothing can breathe new life into carpet that’s matted and shows wear marks from years of heavy use.
Stains
Many types of carpet stains can be removed with professional carpet cleaning. Stains that withstand multiple cleaning treatments, and multiple stains that have penetrated deep into the carpet fiber are indicators that your carpet is ruined and should be replaced.
Matted Pile
Most carpets are made with tight loops of fabric called piles. Lower-pile carpets use shorter fibers, and high-pile carpets use taller fibers. When piles stick together they display an unsightly matted appearance. This is a common problem in high-traffic areas. There are tricks and hacks homeowners can use to try and revive matted piles, but most of the time the carpet will never look as good as it did when it was new.
Age
Carpet has a varying lifespan depending on how heavily it’s used and how much abuse it takes over the years. Regardless of quality, carpet fibers will begin to break down over time, and the carpet can become threadbare. You may even start to see the carpet backing material starting to show through. If your carpet is dingy and showing its age, or its style is outdated, consider removing it for a more modern style and increased comfort.
What to Expect When Removing Carpet
Carpet removal isn’t the most difficult home renovation project except for the fact that rooms must be completely empty prior to removal. Homeowners who are unable to move heavy furniture from bedrooms such as dressers and beds may have to pay the carpet installer to do it, or they get pricing information from a local moving company or a handyman.
Furniture oftentimes is relocated to an unobtrusive location, such as the garage, in order for the removal team to have ample room to work. It will stay there until the new flooring is installed. Carpet is much faster to install — think hours — than other types of flooring, such as tile or hardwood, which can take several days to complete for larger spaces.
Stretch-in carpet is the easiest to remove, though the job can be far from simple. The carpet must be prised from the tack strip along the edges of the walls, and then the tack strips themselves are pulled up. Padding for stretch-in carpet installation is rarely glued down, so it’s just a matter of rolling it up and removing it. Once these materials are gone, the room is more or less ready for new carpet unless there are visible problems with the subflooring that must be addressed.
Removing glue down and double glue down carpet requires much more labor and time. Workers often have to use scrapers to separate carpet padding from the underlayment.
Once the carpet is removed, your flooring contractor will usually haul it away — make sure that’s part of your contract for new flooring.
How to Find Carpet Removal Pros
Installing new carpet or flooring in your home is a big investment, but it can pay increased dividends when it comes to enjoying your time at home.
Any flooring renovation project starts with removal of the old flooring. Modernize created a checklist to help homeowners find reliable flooring contractors in their locations, and when you are ready to get rid of your old carpet, we can put you in contact with carpet installers through our network of pre-vetted flooring contractors.
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