Removing Staples from Wood...

[poohs_hunny]

I just removed the carpet from my stairs and have spent hours removing about 8 million staples from the wooden stairs. There are still many left, and some very stubborn ones. I have been using pliers to pry them out, but some aren't sticking up enough to grab onto. Any tricks to get them to come out? I'm exhausted and just want to get the stairs stained and painted! Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[freckles and boo]

I did the same thing 13 years ago when we bought our house. I had blisters for days. It really helps to have a tack puller/staple puller. It is kind of a specialty tool that looks like a little fork. You can get them from upholstery suppliers.

 

[mrsg00fy]

When we pulled up the carpets in our house several years back, it was very difficult to get all of those stubborn staples out of the floor. It was hard work that was rough on the fingers...but we used staple removers. They were the claws type that you use to get staples out of paper. If we used just the right angle, the entire staple would come right up. However, some were stubborn and we had to use plyers/ grippers (I don't know what they're actually called) to get the remaining pieces out. It took a few days...but it was a big area and included the stairs. We had pulled up the carpeting in 5 rooms.

Good luck!

 

[bballmom56]

We just finished pulling up the carpet from a 20' x20' living room plus hallway. What worked on the tough staples was a thin flat-head screw driver to pry under the staple, wiggle it a little while pulling up on it, and that should raise it enough that the pliers can then be wedged under it to pull it out.

 

[robeck]

needle-nose pliers

 

[phillmolly]

when I had to pull the staples out of our living room floor I used a butter knife and a hammer. Of course I wasn't concerned about marks because we were putting a new floor over it.

 

[golfgal]

needle-nose pliers

This is what we did when we took out the carpet in our old house, the entire house of carpet. We found beautiful wood floors under there and had them refinished. It took a LOT of time. The ones that didn't come out were cut off when they sanded the floors. If you aren't going to do that you could try getting a nail set (a tool to sink nails in below the surface) and use that to push the staple into the floor.

 

[indimom]

Like another poster, we used a straight screw driver (gently wiggling under and lifting just enough to grab with pliers also. Worked pretty well, the few little marks made by the screwdriver were sanded out, so it's worked fine. I agree, it's very time consuming and tiring, but well worth the effort in the end. LOVE our wood floors.

 

[bluechel]

This pliers is specifically designed to get tiny things in its grip like staples. Watch the video and you'll see how it really gets staples out FAST! I love it, it is called the Nail Hunter....seems to be awesome for staples, thousands of them! They are sold online and in some catalogs.

 

[skrew32]

I can see that this is a pretty old post but I see this problem in so many forums. I have refinished or alternativly painted many hardwood floors that used to have carpet. I have tried a lot of methods I see posted in forum to some sucess, but the best tool I have found is a pair of "Fence Pliers". They can be found at lowes home depot true value and tool stores like northern tool or harbor freight (I have been very happy with my kobalt brand from lowes $14.99). If you are worried about marring the wood you can use a putty or drywall knife flat on the floor for a prying surface, but the small puller in the top center of the tool that you use like pliers usually will grab them and they can be removed with an upwards pull if that doesent get them the claw end will. You can even use these to pull out broken staples it is just a great tool all around. Hope this helps someone as much as its helped me.