A friend has asked me if I can put a bit of carpet down in her hallway. It's an awkward space with an L bend, 6 doors off it, an alcove etc.
Currently it's got several overlapping rugs covering the lino, and has had for years. She's not lookign for a gold plated job, just very cheap and good 'enough'. The new carpet is a foam backed offcut
I've laid carpet and vinyl in simpler spaces no problem, already got a big stanley knife (and hooked blades if needed).
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 20:58:45 GMT,it is alleged that "PC Paul" spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:
Rough cut it in, make sure with foam back carpet your blades are SHARP, (some of the pile types also blunt blades very quickly) It's very unforgiving of blunt blades. Take it SLOWLY.
Fit one edge at a time, so you can shift it over if you make a mistake towards the beginning. I am sure other tips will be forthcoming.
Not much help from this end, since after trying various carpet-fitting techniuqes I gave up and now pay a carpet fitter for anything fancier than a store-room. ;)
What a pig of a job that is -- but, sincerely, I hope it goes well for you.
After my last attempt at the landing (6 doors) I swore never to attempt it again. It was an absolute pig of a job. That was using the latest 'felt' backed carpet. What IS fun and quite a pleasant job is laying laminate flooring. Very satisfying when you tighten the cramps and watch the join close up.
Not a job I like, but last time I had a fitter here I did watch what he did carefully to see if there were any tips to pickup:
He started by placing the carpet in the middle of the space and folding the edges in onto itself so that he had gap round the edges of the room. Next he moved the whole carpet into about the right place by taking an edge in turn, holding it and placing his leg over the edge to use his heal to pull the mass of carpet toward him.
Once it was centralised he folded it out one side at a time and cut it roughtly to size (leaving perhaps 6" spare at every edge). This made it manageble and easy to fold out into the nooks and crannies. He then went round and cut it again (with a new blade) - this time much closer to size - but still about a half inch too big.
Next he stretched it with a knee kicker, and pushed it down onto the gripper rod - leaving the edge sticking up at the skirting.
Finally using a wide stair tool (i.e. bit like a wide blunt, smooth bolster chisel), he tucked all the edges in behind the gripper rod without cutting then again (that was a trick I had missed in the past trying to get it cut spot on).
I would make a template from brown packing paper (preferably the stuff that comes in 120cm wide rolls) first. Then cut the carpet slightly oversize from that and trim it to fit after laying.
Thanks very much, sounds like a good approach. No gripper rods here, it'll be spray goop, or even just free floating... Can't get the really neat edges you get by folding it down the back of the grippers, but then again it's a narrow hallway and she often walks round in bare feet, so grippers would be a liability!
Also IIRC you really ought to have underlay as well to use grippers.
The underlay sits in the depression created by the gripper rods .. Using foamback you should use some form of underlay made for foamback .it used to be a heavy paper but i think you can get some sort of stuff similar to what is used for putting under laminate floors .It stops the rubber sticking to the floor and keeps dust from coming through gaps in floorboards . ... Stuart
If the carpet is definitely large enough to cover the L shaped floor, the first job is to lay the carpet down in the longest leg of the L, ensuring that the outside edge follows the wall parallel and then make a diagonal cut at the inside of the L, so that the carpet will go round the corner. This will result in both inside legs of the L having quite a large amount to cut off. Don't be tempted at this point to cut off that part of the carpet that is bunched up on the inside of the L.
Now check that the carpet overlaps all walls that it has to be cut to, including any deep doors. Ensure that the carpet, where it goes around the corner is flat on the floor. You can now rotate/move the carpet if you find that there is not enough to fill the short L shape. If all is not fine at this point, you can move the carpet so that the diagonal cut is away from the wall. If all is fine, then rough cut the large amount off that I mentioned earlier. You should end up with at least an overlap/excess all around every wall and door opening of about 3 inches (75 mm).
The next phase is to make the cuts from the edge of the wall/door opening that are at 90 degrees from the wall door opening (That is towards you). Make any deep cuts so that you have some overlap. e.g.. You are looking at a wall with a door in it and the carpet has to go towards the door opening. Cut the left hand side so that at the edge of the carpet that sticks through the door is cut too far to the left inside the doorway, but is accurate at the edge of the door frame nearest to you. Depending on the cross section of the door frame, you may have to make several cuts. You will end up with long pieces of overlap and lots of strips around door frames. When you are satisfied, do a final trim.
Now all you have to do is cut the carpet along the L shape. As far as the walls go, I would fold the carpet towards you, look at the bend radius and mark the backing of the carpet with a pen every 3 inches and trim it too that line. If you err on the side of a tiny excess (use scissors for cutting this), then you can go back and re-cut, or you might be able to tuck the edge under the skirting board if there is a gap (Use a narrow scraper to do this). Once you get the balance right, you should be able to quickly trim all the other edges to fit. Facing the wall, you should now be cutting left to right. Just make sure that the carpet does not creep as you fit it, or it will not look right when the job is done. Measure and check for alignment twice or more and cut once.
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