Laying Carpet with Seams

[Bruce]

Hi,

I've been carpet shopping for a room that, at the largest measurements, is 15' wide by 34' long. See the diagram below (not to scale).

I had planned to get 41' of 12' wide carpet, and cut one piece 34' long to got the length of the room. I'd then cut the remaining 12' x 7' lenght into three, pieces, 7' long x 4' wide, 7' long x 4' wide, and 6' long x 4' wide to seam into the upper right section. However, the salesman told me that he didn't think the installers would want to make the seams at a and b, because they normally seam only along the length of carpeting, and not the width. He wasn't sure, and would call the installers. Do you know if this is true? By the way, the carpet I'm looking at normally doesn't show seams.

| 4'| 11' |

-------------------- ' ' ' ' '6' ' ' a ' ' '''''- ' ' '7' ' ' b ' ' 20' '''''- ' ' ' ' \ '7' ' \ ' ' \-'- '--- ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 14' ' ' ' ' ' ' ---------------- | 11' |

All the carpet I like comes 12' wide; there's nothing 15' that I like. So, if the above seaming pattern in not workable, I'm going to pay for a lot of waste.

Thanks, Bruce

[LBaker]

Why not just use rug that comes 15' wide?

[Mary Shafer]

You really can't piece them like that. I think the crosswise seams ripple and bulge. There's an easy, if not quite as economical, way, though.

Go the other way and use three 15-ft long pieces. Two seams. You'll use 45 linear feet of carpet if there's no pattern to match. You'll also have a 2'x15' strip left over.

Mary

[RB]

Fifteen foot wide goods are not found as often as arfe 12 foot wide goods.

RB

LBaker wrote:

[NorMinn]

I don't know about the issue of placing seams along the width, rather than the length. Cut ends can be bound with selvage like the sides, so it should not be THE issue. I would not want the placement you give in your diagram, and likely that the installers don't want right angle seams. It might be difficult to get the carpet to lay flat and not show a contrast with adjoining pieces because the pile goes a different direction. Over time, also, traffic and cleaning may make the pieced version warp/bulge.

[Bruce]

Mary Shafer wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Mary,

We suggested that, but the salesman said the carpet should run the length of the room. He's checking with the installers for us today if this is ok.

Thanks, Bruce

[Bruce]

"LBaker" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Like I said, there's nothing out there that I like. As a matter of fact, there's practically nothing out there in 15' width.

Bruce

[Mike Dobony]

You can special order almost any carpet you want in 15'. You are NOT limited to what is in stock. My b-i-l did just that about a year ago.

-- Mike D.

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[Mike Dobony]

Did you ASK about the carpet you wanted being available in special order in

15'? Almost every carpet is available in 15', but most stores do not STOCK them.

[Dorot29701]

I'm not sure how to determine the width from the length is some rooms. We just had new carpet put down in our house. The great room is 23 X 20. They used two pieces of 12 ft. wide carpet, side by side. The seam runs what I would call "across" the room - and it is exactly where the old carpet seam was.

The seams do show a little - hope they get less visable. I held my breath the whole time thinking they couldn't possibly have enough carpet. Ended up with two pieces left over about the size of a bathmat.

I would surely inquire about getting special order carpet so you don't have to worry about waste and having too many seams.

Dorothy

[RB]

The correct way, in my experience is to run the seams so that they are parallel to the direction that sunlight enters the room. If they are perpendicular to the direction that sunlight enters the room they will be much more visible.

RB

Bruce wrote:

[Mary Shafer]

When I had my pale gray plush carpet put in, that's how they laid it in the living room and dining room, which is about the same shape as your room (a little shorter and a little wider), and the master bedroom, which is a similar rectangle, but shorter. The windows are on the long wall in the living room and on the short wall in the bedroom. You can't really see the seams in either room, but it's solid-color plush, so you shouldn't be able to.

Two of the three little bedrooms were laid lengthwise and the third was laid crosswise, because that way you looked at the nap in the same direction standing in the hall looking into the three rooms, meaning that the carpet looked the same. If they'd laid them all the same way, one room would have appeared to be a slightly different color.

The old carpet, which wasn't 15 ft wide, was laid the same way, incidentally.

Mary