When removing old carpet, it's really a three-phase job. The first phase is pulling up the carpet, which is pretty easy. Around the perimeter of the room are tack strips. These have vertically protruding tacks that pierce the carpet. These tacks offer great lateral resistance but practically zero resistance against uplift, so if you grab a section of carpet and pull straight up, you can free it with minimal effort. Indeed the most arduous part of carpet removal is cutting it into pieces you can roll and cart off. The second phase is pulling up the old carpet underlayment. This, too, is simple and straightforward, at least with a foam underlayment as shown here. The parts that are dry are readily pulled up by hand; the parts that are badly stained and stick to the floor can be removed with a floor scraper. The third phase is the most difficult: Removing the fasteners. Prying up tack strips is easy and straightforward, but pulling the hundreds of staples used to tack the underlayment down is not.In my arsenal I have upholstery staple removers and stationery staple removers, and neither will suit here. You can also try a flathead screwdriver, a hammer and pliers, but you'll be there for days.In search of a faster solution I tried two new-to-me tools. The first is this $19 Zenith Carpet Staple Puller, by Danco. The images made it seem promising. The tool promises to speed the task by removing multiple staples at once across its wide, toothed edge. In practice, that promise collided with reality. I found this tool can only remove multiple staples at once if the staples are all aligned in the same direction. What I've found, at least on the underlayment pictured here, is that the original installer fired the staples at random angles. That cleanly negates the tool's multi-staple ability. The second problem I found with this tool, can be seen in the usage diagram below:In the diagram under the "Lock" step, you can see that the staple must be placed all the way at the back of the teeth in order to be cleanly lifted out. In practice, I've found the only way to get the staple that far back, is to slide the tool forward quickly and with force, driving it under the staple and seating it in one move. It requires your aim with the tool be perfect, otherwise you risk snapping the staple with the forward momentum, and then you've got to grab the pliers and pull both halves out. If the staple is not seated all the way and you level the tool back, the staple can snap. Once again you must reach for the pliers, which is time-consuming. In short, in this instance, I found the tool slowed the work rather than speeding it.The second tool I tried is this $20 RockSteel staple remover. This tool arrives extremely sharp and works well, with a caveat: If you want this tool to work quickly, you must be able to see the staple.Here's what I mean by that. When you pull up carpet underlayment, it tears free at the staples, leaving little blobs of foam fastened to the subfloor. If you try tearing these off with your fingers, you'll be there all day. Problematically, these blobs obscure the orientation of the staple. That means you come in with the tool multiple times at different angles, hoping to get lucky. With hundreds of staples to do, that's wasting time.What I've found sped the task, is to take a quick pass with a stiff-bristled stainless steel wire brush. This swifly shreds the foam, allowing you to see the staple clearly. You can then come in with the RockSteel and get the staple in one pass. The bent angle of the RockSteel tool works well for driving the tool forwards, but requires an extra hand for levering the staple out. I used the fingers of my non-tool-driving hand as the fulcrum.I struggled to do the first room with the Zenith tool, and it took forever. There was a lot of pliers use, and a hammer for nailing in stubby snapped staple protrusions that resisted extraction.The second room I applied the steel wire brush trick, and along with the RockSteel I completed the work in less than half the time of the first room.That said, you will not be handing the RockSteel down to your grandchildren. The tips go blunt quickly, and one of the prongs is already starting to deform. This tool is effective but has not been designed to last.From left to right: Hammer for split staples you can't extract. Zenith tool, which only works well if staples are aligned in the same direction. Pliers for extracting split staple halves. Steel wire brush for shredding underlayment foam. RockSteel tool. Magnetic pick-up tool for cleanup.Other tools you'll want for this job, though not pictured, are: Kneepads, a headlamp for good visibility in dark corners, a respirator (when you shred the foam with the brush, it scatters a lot of dusty particles in the air) and safety goggles. I put the goggles on as a precaution, thinking I wouldn't really need them; but I was surprised at how many staples I popped that shot directly upwards and into the goggles.Happy staple pulling, and if you've got your own fast method, please share below.