How To Lay Carpet

Carpet flooring creates a cozy atmosphere for a room and makes it look elegant as well. Regular dusting and vacuuming can enhance the appearance of your carpeted flooring and make it look new for many years to come. Most people find the process of laying a carpet very tiresome, so they usually hire a professional to accomplish the task. However, if you read this article and follow the systematic guidance give here, you will come to know that laying carpet on the floor is an easy task, which can be done without any external assistance.

The first step towards laying the carpet is preparing the floor. The floor should be clean and smooth. If you have wooden floor, sweep or vacuum the area to be carpeted. Look for loose nails in the floorboard and nail them down, using a hammer. If the floor is of concrete, use a self-leveling compound to fill any rough parts and clean the area properly.

 

Install tack strips along the edges of the wall. These strips will hold the edges of the carpet firmly against the walls of the room.

 

The next step will comprise of installing the carpet padding. Cut the carpet padding, so that it reaches the tack strip. Install it by keeping the bumpy side facing up. Ensure that the strips of the carpet padding do not overlap each other and come smoothly together. Cover the seams with a duct tape. Slice-off the excess carpet padding, using utility knife or carpet cutter.  

 

Measure the area of the room, which is to be carpeted. This will help you figure out the number of square yards of carpet needed to cover the entire surface.

While cutting the carpet, take note of the arrangement of its pile. If it is a cut-pile carpet, cut along its back using a utility knife. Loop-pile carpet can be cut through its face. While cutting, make sure that the pile is in the same direction. The carpet should be cut three to five inches longer than the measurement of the room.

 

Attach the carpet to the tack strips, using a knee kicker. Now, stretch the carpet, with the help of a power stretcher, and secure it into the tack strips on the rest of the walls of the room.