covering a height difference between carpet and tiles

[jkn]

Hi all as per a recent post, I've had a carpet put down in our 'diner' area. Our immediately adjacent kitchen floor has ceramic tiles, and due to the slight difference in floor heights, there is a small 'lip' where these two floors. I'm looking for a neat way of finishing this off.

The kitchen tiles are about 7-8mm above the carpet. Our carpet fitter suggested a 'vinyl carpet edge'; a metal extrusion with a lip on it. However, the ones I can see in the sheds are (a) I think unlikely to cover that height - they look more like 3-4mm, and (b) are made of pretty cheap alloy and look a bit poor to my eye. Any suggestions for something better?

Thanks J^n

[George]

Yes,a router and a strip of oak wood.

[jkn]

Hmm, in some ways that appeals ... a bit of a small job to justify buying a router for, though.

I wonder about a strip of wood, 7-8mm thick by ... 12-15mm maybe, placed above the edge gripper, and then a thin strip of Stainless Steel, say 25mm wide, over the top of that, to bridge the gap. This could be screwed down through the wood, into the gripper or floor. It does then leave a 'ridge' on the carpet side ... unless this is chamfered ... and then we're back to the router.

J

[Man at B&Q]

You don't need a router to put a chamfer on a bit of wood!

MBQ

[George]

Well £22 will get you a cheap&cheerfull router at screwfix and will come in handy for doing other light jobs as and when its needed.

It'll chamfer the top of the wood and rebate the underneath to allow for the slight drop between floors and if done neat will look more pleasing than a piece of alluminium.

[jkn]

Agreed. I have a perfectly good Record plane that will do the job.

J^n

[jkn]

What width of wood are you thinking of? This sounds quite wide ...50mm or so, which is a bit wider than I was thinking of.

J^n

[The Wanderer]

I'd suggest you ask the carpet fitter to come back and do the job properly. A strip of gripper rod with the pins flattened off, then a 'Z-Lok' or similar carpet-to-tile bar pinned to the top of the gripper bar.

That's exactly how the join between our wood floor and carpet was done, and the difference in height was about what you have; the carpet rises pretty much imperceptibly up to the higher level of the wood flooring.

[jkn]

He actually did what I'd asked him to after we'd discussed it, since I didn't like the extrusions I'd seen in the shop for this sort of thing.

With the scheme you mention, don't you get a part of the carpet 'unsupported', as it rises up to the extra height due to the double gripper rod? I don't think I'd like that.

J