Carpet installation - DYI?

[Paul M]

Is it feasible for wife and I to replace wall to wall carpet ourselves, with no prior experience? It's the upstairs hallway, 3 steps, a landing, 10 more steps and another landing. The width is just under four feet. Another complication would be cutting to fit around bedroom doorways.

I want to hire installers, but our money is REALLY tight and after three installers failed to show up for estimates or even phone to cancel, the wife started hinting we should do it ourselves.

Are there any major pitfalls to be avoided? Recommendations for a good instruction book?

Thanks, Paul in San Francisco

[William Deans]

Greetings,

a) Yes, you can do it yourself. b) I don't have a good book to suggest, sorry. c) You will need to purchase / rent some tools.

Hope this helps, William

[Chet Hayes]

I do many repairs around the house, but this job is one that I would not even consider doing. IMO, it's either going to wind up looking like hell, or else you're going to have to pay to have it done right later, including the cost of buying carpet again.

[Casinoknight]

Fuzzy side up, and as close to the wall as possible.

U R Welcome

[Jennifer]

Don't know if this is something you might want to consider, but there are "carpet tiles" for DIYers. Product names are Legato and Tesserae, both made by Milliken. Properly installed, they supposedly look like regular wall-to-wall, and you can swap panels in and out if you get a stain.

I did a little reading on them before I decided to just hire a pro because the cost difference wasn't big enough for it to be worthwhile to me, but both products got pretty good reviews from DIYers. IIRC, Tesserae is the higher-end product, and Legato is available from Home Depot.

-- Jennifer

[Paul M]

I knew my instinct was right, and I'm going with your suggestion. Now, if only I can find some reliable installers before Christmas!

Paul in San Francisco

[davefr]

Yes you can do it but it's much harder then it looks and you need knees of steel.

I've done some of my own installation and it turned out great but I haven't done anything too complicated like major seaming of berbers.

There are web sites that show you the sequence for stretching and you can rent most carpet tools.

If you can find a professional with a good reputation, I'd hire it done.