How to get rid of old carpet & padding in Kansas City

Ripping out old carpet is the satisfying part. Getting rid of it is what surprises people. A single room's worth of carpet plus its padding is dense, awkward, and heavier than it looks (padding soaks up years of everything). Here's every way to handle it in the KC metro, plus the prep that makes any option easier.

First: roll it and tie it

Before anything else, cut the carpet into strips roughly 3–4 feet wide, roll each strip tight, and tie it with twine or tape. Do the padding separately. It tears and bunches, so bag it or roll it on its own. Tied rolls are lighter to carry, fit in a normal vehicle, and are the difference between one manageable trip and a station wagon full of loose carpet. Most disposal options below expect it rolled.

1. City bulky-item pickup (know the rules)

Some KC-metro cities will take carpet through their bulky-item program, with conditions. Kansas City, MO, for example, accepts carpet at a scheduled bulky pickup only if it's rolled and over 4 feet long or 40 pounds. Smaller pieces have to go in regular trash bags. Rules and schedules vary city to city (and some suburbs run only a couple of bulky pickups a year), so check your city's solid-waste page before you drag it to the curb. See our KC bulky-pickup guide for how each city handles large items.

2. Recyclers and transfer stations

Carpet really is recyclable, and the KC area has specialists for it. There are commercial carpet recyclers in the metro that take old carpet and padding as a landfill alternative, and RecycleSpot.org (the metro's recycling directory) lists current drop-off options. If recycling isn't practical, the Jackson County and Johnson County transfer stations accept carpet for a per-load or per-ton fee. Call ahead about padding, since some facilities take carpet and padding separately.

3. Donate (only if it's genuinely reusable)

Habitat for Humanity ReStore locations will sometimes take clean, stain-free carpet remnants that measure at least about 10 by 10 feet. That's a narrow window, since it has to be clean and large enough to reuse. Ripped-out, stained, or matted-down carpet from a real renovation almost never qualifies, so don't haul it across town on a hope. For used carpet, recycling or disposal is the realistic path.

When we haul it, or pull it up for you

Carpet is a common part of what we take on remodel and cleanout jobs across the KC metro, often along with the tack strip, old padding, and the rest of a room being redone. If it's already pulled up, we price it by the truck space it fills (from our $125 trip minimum) and do the carrying. If it's still on the floor, our carpet removal service pulls up the carpet, pad and tack strip and hauls it all away. If it's one tidy roll and you own a truck, the options above are cheaper; if it's three rooms' worth on the second floor, that's our kind of job.