I've some new carpet to fit in the hallway. The floor is solid and the skirting board is on the floor, so no gripper strip and no gap for the edges. I guess that some sort of clear, colourless, flexible glue would do it, but I don't want the sticky, stringy sort - I forsee mess! Any recommendations, please. I'll use double-sided carpet tape to hold it down - the little Miele vac., on the setting of about 770W, is reluctant to let go!
Take it to your local carpet shop and get the edges whipped.
gripper strip comes with masonry nails. for just this reason.
You can glue gripper strip to solid floors, or nail it into concrete.
Owain
Several coats of PVA on the back works.
PVAing the backing at the edges works. It tends to make the pile edges feel stiff, but that stiffness disappears with repeated walking. Copydex latex glue doesn't cause that but isn't as robust. Not tried silicone or SBR, SBR is probably good.
NT
I don't like gripper strip really - also it wouldn't stop the edges from fraying. I wouldn't want a fully-fixed carpet upstairs, BTW, as there are too many services under the floorboards.
feel stiff, but that stiffness disappears with repeated walking. Copydex latex glue doesn't cause that but isn't as robust. Not tried silicone or SBR, SBR is probably good.
A bit of stiffness at the edges won't matter - I don't walk there! I'll try it - easier than gloopy glue. SBR - yeah, right - that'd be messy!
The old way was to turn it over at the edges. Leave a gap in the underlay by the same amount. In the old days it would be stitched, but these days glue would probably do.
My parents' hall, stairs and landing carpet was doubled and stitched at the edges like that. Then the fitters had put screws in the floor and sewn washers to the carpet, which were hooked over the screws.
SteveW
Yup. Think it was more of a Northern way of doing a fitted carpet? Called ring and pin or somesuch? Version I saw used clout nails and galvanised washers.
Bloody good workmanship but a bit fancy for me. This has felt backing, so it'd be rather thick if double. My weatherproof PVA had gone too gloopy to be able to dilute it; I now have some new stuff from TS. When I've sobered up...
There are still people locally who will do 'whipping' of the edges, priced about £4/metre.
It needs cutting to size then taking to the, er, whipper, of course. Seems that exterior PVA wood glue is OK - tried about a foot of an offcut and it's OK. I put it on with the integral spreader and evened it out and worked it in with a flat fitch brush. Not too 'crisp' and seems to hold the loose bits in place.
You can get gripper strips for felt backed carpets. It has microplast tape rather than nails to hold the carpet. You will need an underlay if used with gripper strips.
I didn't know about that sort of strip. Still not keen on trying to nail down into quarry tiles! Also, there'd still be the overhung edge to the skirting, although I suppose that there's no need to space it from the skirting if the carpet won't go under there. Could work well like that.
I wouldn't want to nail into quarry tiles but the fixing nails are fairly easily removed and you could stick the down the strip. You just have to find a glue as in my experience most double sided tape is not suitable[1].
The idea is to space the strips away from the room edge by 3 to 5 mm and to push the cut edge down into the gap with a carpet fitters bolster. That's why these strips have undercut bevel edge.
OT 2. A few months back I took up a foam backed carpet to find the foam had started to disintegrate into dust. The carpet had been stuck down at the edges with double sided tape where the glue on both sides had dried out and gone brittle. The tape was no longer sticking anything to anything.
Need to use a gapfilling glue or it won't stick. DAMHIKT. Eg PU, but not PVA.
NT
Yes - shows it going under the skirting - mine is on the floor so no gap. That's why I reckon that glueing the strip up agains the sirting, putting in underlay of the correct thickness then laying the carpet might well work. All of this discussion is giving me some ideas.
I've had that - decided to use a commercial vac. to get up a lot of the underlay. There is some DS tape under a couple of carpets that has lasted so long that I can't remember anything about it!
I've som Stixall spare...
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