What's that on my thumb? Oh just another potential tetanis laden cut from a rusty staple. Day 3 of ripping up carpet in 3 different rooms. Aside from the crap that seems to come out of the fibers i love having to rip out old rusty staples that break into individual prongs of death when you go to pull them. I have a nice big set of lineman's pliers which could pull the tooth out of a lion's mouth and a nice thin bladed screwdriver to loosen them out but it still sucks.

That's all I have to say.

 

Needle nose pliers with the curved beak > * for getting out nails/staples.

Also if you need to get the tack boards up, the Stanley wonder bar + a hammer is great for that.

 

I bought a wonder bar and holy shit it's my favorite tool. the teardrop cutout rocks at removing nails at all heights.

 

Wonderbar is good. I also have its big brother that's about 3' long and weighs 10lb or so. It blows through tack strips and their concrete nails like they're not there. Just watch out for the baseboards.

 

Another vote for the wonder bar from Stanley. I re-did all my door casings and it ripped them up very easily along with the base boards.

 

If you like the wonderbar...you'll love this. I have 2 and never do any demolition without one. It's a Shark Pry Bar.

Best $10 you will ever spend. Get's into countersunk nails, finish nails, staples, anything & pulls em out quick.

 

I used a chisel. My carpet was held down by wood strips with nails. Oh and don't do what I did an roll your carpet into one big roll. Moving that shit was a 45 minute workout.

 

I love Wonder bar, not so big a fan of Shark bar.

 

Be VERY careful with those old staples. You don't want to end up like this:

https://acurazine.com/forums/health-fitness-34/i-dont-know-wtf-wrong-me-today-318459/

 

I think they both do their respective jobs well...the small Shark bar is great for removing trim with tiny nails/brads or if you're trying to pry off molding that's only got a small access area. I used my Wonder Bar this weekend demolishing my EX's new house...had some old mahogany-veneer plywood cabinets that needed to go. Worked great. But on the dark molding around the windows, I'll have to bust out the Shark because I can't afford to ruine the wood reveal of the window casing, etc.

 

I personally enjoyed using a shovel. Goes though those tack strips with ease. You don't have to be on you knees either.

 

Good idea but I'd have to get a real fine one to get under the wood strips.