I've been ripping up carpet on the third floor, and I did all of the rooms, and pulled up the carpet firring on the sides, and then prepared for what unexpectedly was the hardest part of it all--- pulling up the carpeting on the stairs. First of all, the stairs are very tight, so they are MUCH harder to pull up then the regular carpet-- but even more importantly, because they are so tight, they've got about a million staples holding htem in place. Not only did I have to manhandle the carpet up piece at a time (and each piece is separately cut, but then I had to pull up the carpet padding which was all stapled in. Some of the staples (okay, most of them) stayed in the wood, and then I had to go up and down the floor with a screwdriver, attempting to pull out all of the staples. I did manage to get most of them (but not all-I have a hard time shaving all of the hairs on my face, let alone physically pluck deeply embedded staples from a hardwood floor.) But I did get most of them, and it's primarily done-- I still have to go over the floors of the three rooms and pluck the most egregious staples from the floor before I feel confident enough to hire some professional carpet guy to come in and do the same. I can tell you this though-- 15 years from now-- I AM not pulling up any more carpet staples-- let the carpet rot, for all I care!