one of those 'AH HA!' moments...

We have been painstakingly removing the carpet from each of the rooms in our house, well the carpet is the easy part, but removing those damn nail strips is a total pain in the butt! Anyway, last weekend the tool we were using to pry up the nail strips gave out on us so we made a quick dash to Home Depot for a new one... and made a miraculous discovery that I felt compelled to share in case it helps just one other person remove carpet from hardwood flooring!

When I was researching how to pull up carpeting from hardwood floors online, I got some good advice but I didn't find any pictures of nail strip removing tools, or even carpet knives, so I assumed they were an easy to buy tool... So we trotted off to the local hardware store to buy the tools, and after searching for a while, we asked a couple of different people but nobody knew of a tool designed specifically for pulling up the nail strips... This was the best thing they could come up with.

It seemed a little flimsy, but we thought, well it has to be narrow to fit underneath the strip - so we bought it, along with the carpet knife (which they had several different versions), and the kneepads and gloves and off we went.

After 1 room and half the hallway the thin metal started to give out and bend... so we decided we needed another one. So we headed off to Home Depot late on Sunday night where we had 10 mins before closing to find a replacement tool, so we asked the closest guy in an orange apron and he said oh sure they're over here... and this is the tool he showed us, it's actually called a baseboard lifter and looked much bigger than our previous one, but it was a lot sturdier!

Once we got it home we finished the hallway in no time, this tool made it SO much easier! You just wedge it under the nail strip, use a hammer to hammer it all the way under and then pry up the nail strip. You can put it right where the nails are nailed into the strip and it will take them out at the same time. Amazing what happens when you use the right tools for the job!