Installing wall - to - rampart carpeting take preparation and care , but it does n’t take much special acquisition . This clause will take you through the fundamental principle of what you need to know to install carpet in the way of your choice – from gathering materials , to measuring and prepare , to put the padding and carpet in place . Very large rooms require power stretchers , so leave behind those to the professionals , but the relief of the house is yours .

Tools:

Materials:

Preparing to Install Carpet

Probably the most difficult part of installing carpet is calculating exactly what to buy and how to rank it . Carpeting is sold in 9 - foot , 12 - metrical unit , and 15 - foot breadth ; cushioning is sold in stock 4 1/2 - foot roll . Before you buy , measure the room to be carpeted and eviscerate a flooring programme on graph paper – check that your measurements are exact . check the accurate position and width of all doors , window , fireplaces , radiator , and other wall pause , and include the full depth of threshold frames . Take this floor program with you to the carpet principal .

be after the layout of the carpeting and the padding carefully with the dealer to take advantage of the full width of the carpeting and to denigrate seaming in backbreaking - traffic areas . Calculate the square yardage to be carpet – length multiplication width , divided by 9 – and take the monger ’s advice on the length of carpet and padding you ’ll require .

It is possible to trim back and seam the carpeting yourself , but this can be tricky . In a minor elbow room that is no full than the carpet ringlet , you wo n’t have to make seam ; otherwise , have the carpet dealer cut and seam the carpeting to fit the room .

The dealer should also determine the amount and type of tackless strip fastener you call for . The fastener come in 4 - metrical unit strips . The character depend on the heaviness of your carpet and the floor you ’re covering ; the strip have predetermined edge weather sheet and preset nail for installation over wood or concrete . Be sure to purchase the right kind , and buy a cartoon strip or two extra to allow for fault . Have metal door butt against strips cut to the exact measure of your doors .

Finally , rent a knee kicker from the carpet dealer . The kicker is used to stretch the edge of the carpet onto the fastening strips .

Before installing the carpeting , make the storey . Move all article of furniture out of the elbow room and dispatch doors that open into the room . Pound in any loose nail and reset squeaking floorboards with flooring nail , using a nail lot to drive the heads below the trading floor surface . Condensation can be a problem when resilient floor is carpet ; if the level is covered with springy roofing tile or rag floor , move out the old floor and then organise the subfloor .

To fill out preparation for the carpet installation , take floor registry covers and , if you want it to insure the rug , quarter - circle baseboard molding . Fill in any all-embracing cracks in the floor with wood putty , smoothed over with a putty knife , and let the patches dry completely . Vacuum the room soundly before you start .

The first step is nailing down the fastening strip . Starting at a turning point , nail strips along the boundary of the floor , 1/4 in from the wall , with their tooth orient toward the wall ; apply a stable gear hammer to drive the preset nails through the slip and into the floor . Wear work gloves to protect your hands . To ensure the strips are nailed equally and to maintain the 1/4 - inch gap , slue a 1/4 - inch - thickheaded piece of scrap wood , on sharpness , between the strip and the wall as you ace each holdfast into place . Work around the elbow room , slide this guide board along the wall as you nail the fastening strip into place .

To work on around corners , track fastener strips to fit with a small carpenter’s saw . Nail disinvest in front of radiators unless there ’s enough headroom under them to admit the knee kicker with elbow room to spare – there usually is n’t . Set strips closely around unresolved floor registers . pinpoint a metal doorway edging strip across the base in each threshold , with the open lip pointing into the elbow room and teeth pointing out . The brim should line up on the button under the edge of the door when both carpet and door are in place .

Now that you ’ve prepared the level , the next page will show you how to put the cushioning and rug in lieu .

Placing the Carpet

When all the fastener strip have been nailed into place , you are ready to start installing the rug . Take the rolled - up carpet and displume it into placement in the way . Then unwind it , correctly over the spare floor . This is so you wo n’t flick the padding out of place by and by by deplume the carpeting across it . Roll the carpeting back from one side toward the gist of the room , scupper the level again .

Unroll a slip of froth padding along the border of the flooring across the unornamented side of the way from wall to wall , waffle - patterned side up . Cut the strip carefully with toilsome scissors grip , go forth about 2 inches overlap the fastening funnies at each destruction . tear the strip show to position it over the bare end of the floor so that it overlaps the fasten flight strip on both ends and along the wall . Then staple it into place , using a staple artillery to set staples diagonally every 6 inches or so along all four boundary of the padding .

Cover the respite of the room the same way , vagabond the carpeting back so you could undulate the padding into place . Butt the edges of the strips of padding and staple every 6 inches along every border . Trim the cushioning as necessary to fit around obstacles , cutting as closely as possible around them .

On concrete floors , use carpet cushioning adhesive material to anchor the foam padding . Position the cushioning as key previously and roll it back from one side , then spread adhesive on the exposed floor as directed , using a paintbrush or a amercement - toothed notch trowel . Roll the padding out onto the adhesive , pressing and smoothing it into spot . To complete the gluing , tramp the cushioning back from the other wall , put on the adhesive , and unroll the padding . repetition , butting the strips of cushioning , until the entire floor is padded . Fill in under radiators with small piece of padding .

When all the cushioning has been set into position , trim off the edge overlap the fasten strips . expend a usefulness tongue with a knifelike hard - duty blade to cut down the redundant padding : Holding the knife at an angle toward you , dilute the cushioning off exactly where it meets the inner border of the fasten strip . The surface of the padding should be more or less grade with the airfoil of the tighten flight strip .

at long last , unroll the carpeting over the padding and pull it cautiously into emplacement , overlap the secure strips all around the way . slice the folded - up carpeting vertically where it operate around corner , being measured not to snub past the overlap into the main carpet , so that the edges lie flat against both corner wall . Make straight cuts and crosscuts to meet the carpeting around radiators and other obstructions ; do n’t reduce hollow in the carpeting to accommodate them . Trim cautiously around open floor registers , impart a slender convergence .

tie the carpet to the fasten strip with the knee kicker . Starting in a corner , set the head of the kicker flat on the carpet , about an column inch from the bulwark and aimed somewhat down and at an slant to the bulwark . Kneeling on the floor at the corner , hold the hold of the kicker with one hand and lean on the base with the other . Put all your system of weights on the stifle opposite the weapon system hold the kicker and move your other knee forward acutely to hit the cushioned end of the kicker . The head of the kicker will stretch out the carpeting under it to nobble it onto the teeth of the fastening strip at the boundary of the floor , leave an untrimmed edge of carpeting still sticking up against the rampart . Repeat the kicking process to fix the carpet on the opposite rampart of the nook .

After kicking the first turning point of the room into home , fasten the two adjacent recess the same way , will the diagonally paired corner liberal . Then lick from your start out corner out along the two paries of the turning point , holding the just - fastened carpeting in place with one hand and using the other to kick the next few inches of carpeting . Make indisputable the carpeting lie flat and does n’t shift as you work . Fasten the third side of the carpet , working toward the loose turning point , and then fasten the 4th side .

Use a public-service corporation knife with a tart big - responsibility leaf blade to trim the edges of the carpet , and replace the blade as soon as it start to slow . Cut off the twist - up edge of rug equally , result about 3/8 column inch still sticking up above the tacked - down edge . Cut carefully , and dress off any ragged tufts of yarn .

To complete the installation , use a soused putty tongue to lodge the trimmed border of the carpeting down into the 1/4 - in disruption between the walls and the fastening strips . Press the gelded bound of the carpeting firmly into place all around the room . To finish the edge at door , reduce the rug edge cautiously to gibe under the curved rim of the door finishing strip . Push the new carpeting edge under the flange and utilize a pound and a wood auction block to ram down the flange firmly down over the carpet sharpness .

Finally , replace floor register – you may have to reduce the carpet edge back farther , but cut carefully . put back quarter - round baseboard molding if you removed it to begin with , and rehang the doors . If the new carpet and padding are much thicker than the onetime floor cover , you ’ll plausibly have to plane the bottom sharpness of each door so it can open up and close easy . Remove the room access from its hinges and plane the bottom edge cautiously , planing from both ends toward the center . Rehang the threshold . Move the furniture back into the room . Enjoy your newfangled rug !