How do I take up carpet and install hard wood floors in my house?

We've got some old dirty burbur carpet-there's a subfloor but I'm not sure what its made of-what's a good price for real wood hardwood floors?

Thanks for any help.

For real hardwood, prefinished about $3.99 to Exotic at 18.99 per sqft. For pro installation expect about $3. to $4.
Remember its expensive, pro installation makes it perfect. Also cheap berber is less than $2.00 installed with pad complete. Example 12 x 12 room in berber is $288.00 in hardwood cheap is over $1000. to exotic $3100.

cut the carpet at the door ways and start pulling it up if you cut it up in strips it's easier to haul out, take up the pad if you have a concrete floor you will have to scrape up the pad glue that the installer's used to hold the pad down. If you have a wood subfloor the pad was stapled down and you can use a scraper to pop the staples up, it should only be stapled at the pad seams and around the edges. You can use a pry bar and hammer to remove the tack strips. If your floor is concrete you will be glueing the hardwood down, let your first rows set up for a few hours so that they are really stuck so you have a good starting surface to continue with. If you have a wood subfloor you will be nailing the hardwood down, through the tongue of the hardwood. Remember when buying hardwood floors you get what you pay for. Look at the side of the piece you want to buy, you can tell if it has a good stain and a good clear layer on top, the better it is the better the wear, just because it says hardwood doesn't mean it won't scratch and dent. I would stay away from getting wood flooring with a beveled edge. the edge tends to trap alot of dirt and you have to get on your hands and knees to get it out of the grooves, also with the beveled edge sometimes when the manufacturer stains the product not all of the edges are stained, and once you install it there's no turning back.

Pull the carpet up, remove the tackless strips around the room's perimeter. Make sure the subfloor is clean and level. If it isn't you can either remove the old subfloor and put new plywood down (at least 5/8" thick) or put new a new subfloor down on top of the existing one. If you do this though, make sure you account for transitions between rooms because the floor heights between them will be different. The cheapest and best way to go is by buying pre-finished 3/4" tongue and groove hardwood flooring. They sell it at the Home Depot for like $2.99 a square foot. You'll need to rent or buy a flooring hammer for this job. Expect to pay about $30 a day to rent it.