Carpet, underlay and gripper fun!

[Ric]

Hi folks,

The man (I always make this assumption - it could easily be a woman) is coming to fit the bedroom carpet on Saturday and I have to get the grippers and underlay down before he comes. I think I know mostly what I need to do but am just looking for clarification:

Grippers: I intend to nail these down (spikes pointing towards skirting of course!) about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the skirting. Is this about the right distance and how important is the distance? Anything to watch out for when going round architrave/chimney breast?

Underlay: No problems with the cutting of this - although not entirely sure how close it should get to the grippers - should it touch them or is there are a gap? I also thought that it was just a case of putting it in place but the packaging says that it should be fixed with staples or adhesive- what methods of fixing would people recommend? Once the underlay is fitted, what tape should be used to seal the joins?

Think that's about it - although any other tips/horror stories greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Ric.

[stuart noble]

If this "person" is a carpet fitter, I'd let them decide what goes where.

[Dave Liquorice]

I'd talk to the fitter, the gap is probably dependant of the thickness of the carpet but you are in the right ball park.

The people who just did a bedroom here the underlay was almost but not quite touching the gripper strips. ie no real gap but not tightly butted up.

Do not glue... You'll regret it when you come to change it in 10 or 20 years time or the next people to live there will curse you. Like I'm cursing the previous ocuupiers who had everything stuck down here...

Don't think I saw any tape used at all on our recent fitting. Why would you need it?

[Al Reynolds]

I go for 8mm - about 1/3 of an inch. If it's wrong the fitter will probably take them up and put them back again (and charge you). If they're too far from the wall, the carpet won't fold snugly down into the gap and you might even be able to see floorboard at the edge. 1/2 inch is way too much IMHO.

Touching is fine, but not so it bunches up against the gripper.

I have always stapled it with a staple gun, until the fitter who did our lounge/diner left me a can of the spray adhesive they use. Stuff is magic! Used it to put underlay in our porch and it stuck the underlay to the (fairly rough) concrete like glue (which isn't altogether surprising, but you know what I mean). Also, staples are a pig to take out when you replace the carpet.

I've never bothered. Very little lateral force on a carpet, so as long as you cut the underlay accurately you shouldn't need it.

HTH, Al

[Andrew Gabriel]

The carpet fitter normally does that.

[Ric]

"stuart noble" >appreciated!

But if I let them fit it they will charge me!

[Al Reynolds]

How much? My gripper and underlay *fitted* in my lounge/diner was cheaper than I could source it myself.

Al

[Ric]

Really? We did enquire at the carpet place and it appeared that their cheapest quality stuff (which the bloke actually refused to recommend - presumably becuase he wanted to sell us a dearer one) was similar in price to B&Qs best quality stuff which I am told is very good! I beleive the carpet grippers were fairly dear as well. We were told by the chap in the shop that the bloke who fits it would charge extra on the day for fitting anything that wasn't purchased from them. I know that probably doing him a brew and maybe bunging him a tenner would probably have been enough but I thought that I could do it myself. Didn't realise that it would be a problem. You are all scaring me...someone say something reassuring!

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 05 Oct 2004, Ric wrote

Well, also probably because he's right to tell you to avoid the bottom- line stuff... ;) (I think we'd all agree that underlay can make or break carpet: cruddy stuff can make even good carpet seem cheap 'n' nasty.)

Out of curiousity, where were you buying this from? The price comparisons I've done over the years seem to suggest the big-name places have cheap "headline" (per square metre) prices, but that their underlay, grippers and threshold bars are dear. I guess that's how they make it work, but personally I'd rather be quoted a realistic price for both, rather than "one low + one inflated".

(FWIW, we've used a local specialist firm for the past two big jobs at our house; whilst his carpet initially seemed expensive, the total cost -- with really good underlay -- was either the same or less than we'd been quoted at the edge-of-town sheds.)

[Ric]

Agreed, but I was never going to get an honest answer from the man - he was a smooth talking salesman and I could tell I had no chance of reasoning with him.

CarpetRight - and I agree with everything you say!

I would do well in future to follow your example but at the moment I have this carpet coming on Saturday and still need to get the grippers and underlay down!

[Al Reynolds]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

In which case you are better off fitting the gripper etc. yourself. They'll rip you off for it. Just go for 7-8mm all round - there's no chance their fitter will moan - he's on a pathetic hourly rate and he'll be blindingly quick. FWIW, the fitter I had from Carpet Right when I was in a rented flat was very good, but I guess it's variable.

Al

[Ric]

In which case if he does identify a problem a tenner in his pocket should be plenty enough for him to fix it for me - much less than I would have paid if I had agreed for it to be fitted at the time of ordering!

I suppose they still have to rely on reputation to some extent - I know that my parents got a carpet fitted from the same shop and it was fitted perfectly - I would not have ordered from there had this not been the case.

[Dave Liquorice]

Fitting came "free" with our recent small bedroom carpet (10m^2 of carpet). Just for comparison, digs out bill 12.19m of gripper =A39.99 (82p/m), underlay (9mm Cirrus "Cloud 9") was charged at =A34.50m^2. The =

whole bill was =A3300 (well =A3300.77 mathematically but they knocked th= e

77p off...).

We didn't look at any sheds or similar places, on the basis that I didn't feel up to fitting it myself without seeing it done at least once and having looked at the price of knee kickers... The other places we looked at all had "free" fitting.

[sw]

Fitting came "free" with our recent small bedroom carpet (10m^2 of carpet). Just for comparison, digs out bill 12.19m of gripper £9.99 (82p/m), underlay (9mm Cirrus "Cloud 9") was charged at £4.50m^2. The whole bill was £300 (well £300.77 mathematically but they knocked the

77p off...).

We didn't look at any sheds or similar places, on the basis that I didn't feel up to fitting it myself without seeing it done at least once and having looked at the price of knee kickers... The other places we looked at all had "free" fitting.

[Richard Faulkner]

In message , Ric writes

I pay £1.25 per yard for fitting grippers, underlay and carpet, (including the supply of grippers and door plates. How much can it cost for them to do the lot?

(Waiting for you to tell me that you are having 12,000 yards of carpet fitted )

[raden]

In message , Al Reynolds writes

When CarpetRight did mine (insurance job) I can't speak for value of money of gripper, underlay, etc, but the fitter was slow and good and conscientious (even if CR had double booked him, and I only got half a day out of him on the first day).

I gave the fitter an extra tenner because I was impressed by his work

[Simon Stroud]

Um, isn't carpet and underlay based on a SQUARE yardage of some kind? I can understand grippers being on a yardage round the perimeter of the room but the shape of the room (think square vs. very long and thin vs., heaven forbid, circular) surely has some impact on the amount of underlay.

Or are we talking about linear length of carpet taken off the roll, then surely the width of the carpet would come into your calculation.

... or perhaps this is the mythical builder's so-called "yard" that skip capacity (presumably volume) seems to be measured in?

Regards, Simon.

[Richard Faulkner]

In message , Simon Stroud writes

Sorry.

I pay £1.25 per square yard of carpet being fitted, for fitting grippers, underlay and carpet, (including the supply of grippers and door plates).

[Dave Liquorice]

I didn't offer "free" fitting I recieved it. I knew full well that the cost of the fitting materials and labour would all be covered by the cost of the materials. Thats why the word free is in quotes in my orginal post...

Carpet at =A36/m2 I'd wouldn't worry about fitting myself an fupping it =

up. This bedroom carpet was =A324.99/m2, wool mix, heavy duty, expensive= to make a mistake on... The bedroom in question belongs to a 4 year old boy so in the next 10 to 15 years it is going to take a beating.

[sw]

I didn't offer "free" fitting I recieved it. I knew full well that the cost of the fitting materials and labour would all be covered by the cost of the materials. Thats why the word free is in quotes in my orginal post...

Opps! as you get older the distance between brain and keyboard seems to get longer and allow errors to creep in - substitute "they" for "you".

Carpet at £6/m2 I'd wouldn't worry about fitting myself an fupping it up. This bedroom carpet was £24.99/m2, wool mix, heavy duty, expensive to make a mistake on... The bedroom in question belongs to a 4 year old boy so in the next 10 to 15 years it is going to take a beating.

Good luck with that, if you can get him to 19 without having to change the carpet you will have done well. If my 16 year old is anything to go by the carpet will be hammered beyond belief, I've seen pub carpet that doesn't get as much wear!.