I'm about to research DIY carpet fitting, just wondering if anyone has done the same and were you pleased with the results?
The first room i'm planning to do is only about 3m x 3m so not too much of a liability.
Last one did was 3m x 3.5m (mini cinema room) and just used double sided carpet tape stuck to the floor screed all around the perimeter of the room and stuck it down. It's been fine for the last 3 or 4 years. Carpet was a foam-backed off-cut, no underlay, underfloor heated.
Easy peasy.
Yup, and yup... in most cases onto gripper rod.
However, make sure you buy a "stair tool" (i.e. the wide polished blunt bolster style chisel thing) for tucking the edges into the gap behind the grippers, and also a knee "kicker" stretching tool so that you can stretch it into place properly - that way it won't stretch after fitting and get lose and baggy.
What I normally do is fit gripper strip all round about 1/2" from the walls (heavier carpets might want a bit more space). Fit underlay inside the perimeter of the gripper and tack into place with a hammer style stapler.
Then unfold/roll the carpet into place and manhandle it so you have an approx fit against a wall. Tamp an edge down onto a length of the gripper (I normally do a bit in the centre first). Then stretch a bit onto the opposite gripper. The repeat across the other axis of the room. You now have it pulled tight across in both directions, and can stretch into the corners. I normally cut in in a couple of steps - say with a few inches to spare on the stretching phase so that you don't have to work with loads of excess carpet, but still have wiggle room. Then a final cut in when it all mostly in place.
Its useful to keep in mind that you can cut the carpet a bit longer than "exact fit" because you can hide the lose edges in the space between the gripper and the wall/skirting. It also allows more margin for error when fitting.
Although they must have a lot of experience in knowing where to cut my carpet fitters cut first, used the knee kicker second and then tucked any extra down behind the gap in the gripper rod and skirting board with a carpet bolster.
alan_m was thinking very hard :
Last year I replaced the hall, stair and landing carpet, with some expensive carpet, which a friend was replacing with new. Nothing at all wrong with it, more than enough for my area. Our 'old' carpet had been chewed by our dog when a pup, the same week we had it fitted.
The company fitting my friends new carpet, had agreed to refit friends carpet, but instead they just delivered it and walked. No expert, but I had fitted carpet to simple areas before. I left the original underlay and gripper strips in place and reused them. I lacked a knee kicker, so seeing the price of them I made one.
Just piece of timber, with a series of sharp nails through the end at an angle, then some thick insulation on the knee end.
It's not perfectly laid, there is slight ripple by the front door, but good enough. I disposed of the old carpet over several weeks, by cutting it down to small sections and putting them in the wheelie bin a bit at a time, when there was space.
And in five years all the foam turns to black dust and makes the floor lumpy and it comes up at the corners? Or is foam backed better these days. Brian
"Brian Gaff \(Sofa\)" snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in news:rutvh8$hfb$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
Felt Backed seems to have taken over at the budget end - thank goodness,
I doubt if you will find foam backed any-more. It seems to have been replaced with felt backed.
The last time I took up a foam back carpet after around 20 years of originally being laid the Henry dusts bags came into play to pick up all the foam dust :) There was a lot of it.
Rubber backed underlay of the same age (in another room) faired a lot better except in a few high traffic areas where the rubber was coming off the backing in chunks.
Foam backed is certainly available and I was about to go with it but you two have put me off somewhat.
Quicker, easier, cheaper... Or a better job. The age old conundrum.
This is at work though, I might not be here in 5 years.
Cloud9 underlay. Costs more, but seems to last forever.
Carpets in industrial premises tend to be somewhat different to domestic carpets especially for areas in corridors where there is high foot traffic. For domestic, people want a longer softer pile whereas in most industrial premises or shops it appears to need short hard wearing pile. Where I've seen carpet being laid in offices it has been 100% glued to the floor - presumably to stop a thinner product from buckling and forming a trip hazard.
If I was doing that i'd need to do something with the floor, we're dealing with old gnarly floorboards.
But it certainly won't be heavy traffic. It's a room I intend for my office in an upstairs corner where i'm planning to work like a recluse.
Traffic isn't just walking it is sitting and moving your feet around whilst sat at your desk. It needs to be a fairly hard wearing carpet for general office use or you will have huge balls of fluff forming at your feet and where the chair castors run.
Even with the right sort of carpet you get a bit of that when it is new.
I really miss the old Arding and Hobbs near Clapham Junction. Got taken over by Debenhams.
The old store had a department for room sized remnants - presumably from their carpet fitting service. Where you could buy at considerable discount the very best quality carpet, designed for use in the highest traffic areas like pubs and so on.
Found exactly what I wanted there for the 'eating' end of my kitchen - the working part obviously something more designed for spills, etc. And some
40 years later - and a couple of kitchen refurbishments - it still looks as new.But that wouldn't suit those who treat floor covering like paint - to be re-done every couple of years.
Hardboard? Then if you don't want the comfort/insulation of underlay you could use spray adhesive for a foam or plastic backed carpet.
I can remember going around a local carpet warehouse and seeing a high quality carpet on sale at a ridiculously low price. It was a whole roll of a remnant left over from carpeting a night club/disco. Unfortunately rather garish colour with their logo embedded in the pattern at around 3 foot intervals :)
Yes - for a largish order it's surprisingly cheap to have your own design.
Remember the complaints about the BBC club having carpets made with their logo. By the usual suspects in the press. Who weren't interested that the club itself paid, not the BBC.
I'd consider using carpet tiles. We used some in the downstairs WC - and put down some of the cheap fibre underlay intended for laminate flooring. That smoothed off the floor and made a contribution towards sound and thermal insulation. Lasted many years - and left it in perfectly acceptable state when we moved.
Yup I have had many decent carpet bargains out of the Kenbro remnants room :-) (although not often seen ones with logo's on though!)
This was in Kenbro - but decades ago :)
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