Carpet Removal in Winston-Salem, NC

Typical cost: national guides put tear-out at $0.70 to $1.60 per square foot, or $140 to $320 for a 200-square-foot room.
Time on site: 2.5 to 4.5 hours per room for pull-up and cleanup.
Stairs: $7 to $10 per step, and up to $25 a step when the carpet is glued.
Wet carpet: soaked basement carpet runs $1.20 to $1.55 per square foot because it is heavier and may hold mold.

Winston-Salem Junk Co. steers your carpet job to one local hauler who pulls up the carpet and pad, rolls it and carries it out, or hauls carpet you have already cut and rolled. The call is free. Tell the hauler the square footage, the number of steps and whether anything is glued down.

Carpet and Flooring Removal by Type

How the floor was installed matters more than how it looks. Stretched carpet over tack strips lifts fast; stapled carpet takes longer; glued carpet and glued vinyl need scraping and cost the most.

Old beige wall-to-wall carpet cut into strips and rolled with its foam pad, stacked in an empty bedroom

Wall-to-wall carpet and pad

The crew cuts the carpet into strips, rolls and tapes it, then pulls the pad and its staples. Rusty tack strips can come up too, at about $0.40 to $0.50 per linear foot in national guides, or stay for the next installer. Glued carpet with a pad underneath runs $0.75 to $1.80 per square foot because the floor has to be scraped afterward. Rooms full of furniture add $25 to $75 each for moving it out of the way.

Worn stair runner partly pulled up on a wooden staircase, with the tack strips and staples showing on the treads

Stair carpet

Stairs are slow work per square foot. Every tread and riser has its own staples, and cleaning up the wood underneath for refinishing costs extra. Count the steps before you call; that number drives the quote more than the carpet itself.

Laminate and vinyl plank

Floating laminate and click-lock vinyl plank aren't fastened to the subfloor, so they come up quickly. Glued plank and sheet vinyl are slower. National guides put floor tear-out at $1.50 to $3.50 per square foot with debris removal included, and linoleum at $1 to $2. Ceramic tile is heavier work, at $2 to $7 per square foot in the same guides.

Gloved worker carrying an old wooden kitchen chair down brick porch steps toward a white pickup with another chair in the bed

Why Winston-Salem homeowners call Winston-Salem Junk Co.

Your request goes to a single independent hauler
Hear the all-in figure before anything is carried out
Calling is free; the hauler bills only the job you OK
Mention stairs, a gate code or a hot tub when you call

What Changes the Price of Carpet Removal

Square footage
Measure each room. Cost guides price by the square foot.
Glue or staples
Ask the hauler to look under a corner before quoting. Glue means scraping.
Water
Soaked carpet weighs more than dry and may carry mold. Say so up front.
Who pulls it up
If you cut and roll it yourself, the job becomes a plain haul-off, and the homepage load prices apply.
Disposal timing
City bulky pickup takes carpet from single-family homes only during the yearly cleanup run; between rounds it needs a hauler (details on the homepage).

Before the Carpet Comes Up

Clear the floor
Small furniture, rugs and anything under beds out of the room.
Mark glued areas
Basement carpet is often glued down, and glue changes the price.
Check for permits
Forsyth County's permit guide lists carpeting and tiling as work that needs no building permit. A full remodel is different.
Plan the next floor
If new flooring goes in the same week, ask whether the hauler can leave tack strips for the installer.

See construction debris removal for tile, underlayment board and other heavy remodel waste.