How is this brass strip between floor tiles and carpet fixed down?

[MM]

Please look at these two pics:

This brass strip is what the builder put in when the house was being built 15 years ago. It joins the kitchen ceramic floor tiles to the "dining area" carpet.

How is this strip fixed down? I cannot see whether there are screws holding it down or whether it is somehow sprung into place.

The close-up shows the strip lifted slightly. That is, I can lift it ~somewhat~ but then it won't come up any more unless I were to use undue force.

What kind of brass strip are we looking at here? The internet, of course, has dozens of pictures, but I'm flying blind here so I don't know what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

MM

[TimW]

It looks to me like it may be a bodge to cover different levels and the strip is fitted the wrong way round. eg the tiles going under the flange where the carpet should go and the carpet running under the whole thing. TW

[Tim+]

If you lift the carpet you?ll almost certainly see that it?s tacked or screwed down through a flange that protrudes under the carpet.

Tim

[Tim+]

[MM]

The carpet area is definitely lower than the tiles, that's for sure. But the question still remains, how is the strip held down? What kind of replacement strip could I use? I've seen pics of wooden strips. Would one of those be suitable?

MM

[MM]

Ah, okay. The brass one in this pic (linked from your URL above) looks identical to mine:

MM

[Chris Hogg]

Very probably something like this

One side rests flat on the tiles; the other side has a flange that sits under the carpet, is fixed to the floor with nails of some sort depending on the type of floor, wood or concrete, and has spikes to grip the carpet.

[harry]

It's probably screwed down. The screw heads are under the tiles. A bit naughty because the tiles would have to come up to get at the screw heads.

It's possible that the flange has just been pushed into the tile cement (no screws) while it was soft.

[Chris J Dixon]

So, what do you see if you lift the carpet away from the strip?

The possibilities for its fixing are influenced by the floor you have underneath. If timber, then screws, or even nails, might be expected. A solid floor might have prompted the use of some form of adhesive.

I once had a house with a solid floor where the carpet bar had obviously come adrift having been glued down. The previous owner had just put a long screw through it, but this appeared to have penetrated a damp membrane, so a bit of digging out and epoxy dribbling was called for.

Chris

[The Natural Philosopher]

In my case the strip is a LOT wider than the top section and its wide flanges have nails or screws to hold it down. Think flat bottomed rail cross section...

In practice the carpet goes under the lip of the centre section and is than rammed down onto gripper spikes on the base flange. I cannot remember if when used with tiles, the tile section is plain allowing tiling up to (or even under) the top flange or whether it too has gripper spikes that I simply used a thick mortar bed to bridge.

Probably the latter.

[MM]

I've lifted the strip now and can see that it's nailed down every few inches. The underfloor appears to be some kind of industrial version of MDF. The strip has barbs to hold the carpet.

Bit of a shame the builder couldn't find one piece to go across the whole kitchen instead of having to add a short piece. It's always looked a bit unsightly. (See my original pics.)

MM

[MM]

Yep,, that's pretty much what it is. With a small nail every so often holding it down. As I said to a previous poster, the underfloor in the carpeted area appears to be some form of industrial MDF.

I haven't studied the tile side yet. It's the carpet side I'm interested in right now.

MM

[Andy Burns]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Don't bother looking at unknwn sites, but lots of this sort of thing are a

3d device, with a fixing plate at the bottom as part of it. Screwed down. Then the bit over the carpet tapped down to grip it.