Preparation For Hardwood Laminate

After removing carpet, you need to pull up the tack strips that will be nailed down around the perimeter. You want to think about how many transistions and what type of transitions you have. For example, I had transitions to carpet and knew that I'd need some tack strip to finish those out, so I made sure to keep enough of the tack strip in good pieces that were big enough for the doorways. There isn't typically any tackstrip installed in a doorway, so when you cut the carpet, you'll need the tack strip to hold the cut part.
Next, remove the padding. This is typically stapled down on the edges, but pulls up fairly easy. Again, I had my little helpers roll for me.
Paper was installed prior to installing the carpet. We needed to remove this because there were too many staples in it and because there were a lot of squeaky floor planks that had to be screwed down.

Fixing Planking

Since you have exposed the subflooring, it's a good idea to walk around and find any squeaky planks. We actually went through and screwed all the planks at every joist. When these planks were installed, only one nail was used per joist. The floor had a lot of squeaks. After we went through and screwed everything down, the floor no longer squeaked. The customer was discouraged because now she couldn't hear her children running around when it was nap time!
Don't use a cordless driver for this job, you'll run out of juice quick. John didn't have his regular drill with him and I didn't bring my truck to the job on the first day.
Let's take a look at how to deal with trim.