Removing Staples from Wood
Select Staple Remover. After removing the carpet, it is common to find many remaining staples stuck on the subfloor. Taking the time to walk around and remove them quickly can exacerbate the problem, but it's necessary to keep your new installation as clean and safe as possible. A few tools help to get the job done as quickly as possible.
If you want to be original, a flat-blade screwdriver and pliers work well in tandem. You can use a screwdriver to pry up or separate the screws and pliers to loosen them. You can go get pliers if you want.
An office-style staple remover can effectively remove certain types of staples. If the staples are small enough to work in a trigger staple remover, like you might use to remove staples from paper, feel free to give it a try. Even better are the flat pry bar staplers, which are common at office supply stores.
Knee pads are invaluable as you work on this project. After fifteen minutes of kneeling crawling on a hard floor covered with carpet adhesive and staples, you'll wish you had some.
Put as much rug as possible. If you are removing carpet, there will be a lot of floor studs when removing the carpet. Discarding staples is mostly about sweeping them off the floor. However, many will still get stuck and need to be removed but getting as much as you can while you first remove the rug will make it easier.
Go slowly and use the pry bar below to loosen the rug while pulling it to help bring as many staples out of the rug as possible. Don't take too many rugs at once or go too fast. If you leave fewer staples, you'll make your job easier.
Use a staple remover to pry up the staples. Whether you want to use a staple remover or a screwdriver for a primitive operation, there is little science to the job. Just get there and start prying them open. If you have a partner, having one person do the loosening and the other use pliers to loosen them will work well. Coordinate to see what works best for you and the tools you have at hand.
Sweep up loose staples thoroughly. It's important that you don't leave any staples laying around. Sweep them up or use a Shop-Vac to suck them up from the floor when you're done, especially if you're going to be installing new carpet relatively soon. Try to get all of them.
