How to Do Your Own Carpet Installation

Doing your own carpet installation is a big job and can be hard work on your back and knees, but you need to make sure you do a good job or any mistakes you make will be highly visible. If you are going to do it yourself check that you have all the correct tools and information at hand so that your carpet is installed correctly and looks great.

Firstly do lots of research, either online through articles and tutorials or attend workshops that are held at home improvement and handy man stores. Take accurate measurements of the room and work out your budget. Then order the carpet and underlay and purchase or hire any tools required to complete the carpet installation.

When installing carpet many tools are required, you will need safety items such as gloves and glasses, kneepads to make it easier on your knees, a hammer and measuring tape. Tools required for the installation part of the carpet include seam cutters, a knee kicker and a seam roller.

Vacuum the old carpet before you start to remove it, this will limit the amount of dust that is dispersed in the room and making the cleaning process easier. Then you need to start pulling up the old carpet and underlay. To make disposal of the old carpet easier, cut it into four foot strips and roll it up as you are pulling it up. The underlay should be removed as well, it will be just as worn as the carpet it. Then you clean up again! Vacuum the room to make sure there is nothing left on the floor otherwise it will be noticed if any debris is left on the floor.

Lay the new tackles strips correctly around the room, and butt them against each other in the corners, do not put tackles strips down across the doorway. Now you will need to put the underlay down in secure in place with staples.

Now you can lay the carpet. You need to ensure this is done perfectly or any mistakes will be very noticeable. Measure your carpet so that it is six inches longer then the room, and then lay the carpet down. Put a chalk mark around the edges of the carpet when they overlap, then trim off the excess with care so that the underlay does not get cut.

Now with the knee kicker you need to stretch the carpet so that the tackles strips hold the carpet installation securely in place. To do this you need to give the butt end of the knee kicker a good drive forward with your knee. This needs to be done all over the room to ensure that all tackles strips have secured onto the carpet. Then trim any overlapped edges with an edge trimmer.

To complete your carpet installation all you need to do is go around the room, tuck in any gaps around the edges and along the door edges with a stair tool. Then check that all tackles strips have secured onto the carpet, trim around vent opening and edges, install a door strip, then sit back and admire the great job that you have done installing your own carpet.