So you have decided on your brand new carpet and now you have placed your order and whilst we always advise having a professional carpet fitter to lay it for you, we understand that some people would rather fit it themselves and save a little bit of money. In this blog, we are going to offer some tips and tricks for fitting your new carpet and steps that you can take to fit the carpet yourselves.
Carpet Fitting Tools
Before you even begin to contemplate starting to fit your carpet, we suggest that you ensure you have all the essential tools. Carpet fitting tools you really do need:
- Knee pads
- Tape measure
- Pencil
- Masking tape
- Hammer or nail gun
- 19mm & 10mm nails
- 3mm hardboard sheets
- Pipe and cable detector
- Gloves
- Hack saw
- Carpet tape
- Craft or Stanley knife
- Carpet stretcher
- Carpet tucker
- Drill
- Vacuum cleaner
Measuring Your Room For Carpet Fitting
You will have already done this prior to placing your new carpet order, but we recommend that you do it again. We recommend grabbing a piece of A4 paper to create an accurate guideline for your carpet laying.
Draw a rough outline of your room on this sheet of paper; it does not have to be perfect; you just want to ensure that the shape is adequately shown. After you’ve measured every part of the room, add it to the drawing. This will provide you with an overview of the entire room and allow you to perform simple calculations.
Do not forget to always add 10cm for any potential waste.
When it comes to measuring any stairs that you are carpeting, these can be slightly more complicated and do require a separate process. Take the time to measure the depth and height of the stair before then multiplying the width. In this case, we suggest allowing a margin of 10% for waste, as staircases are notoriously tricky.
Prepare The Floor
Before you begin laying your new carpet, you must make some important preparations, which include removing all of the existing carpet. Take care in this step because you don’t want to cause any unnecessary damage or injure yourself by being overzealous.
Fitting Carpet Underlay And Carpet Grips
Carpet grips are pre-nailed rods that are laid beneath the carpet to assist it in adhering to the desired area in your room. These are very simple to use and can be sized to fit the area where they are required. They should be used primarily around the room’s perimeter, but not in doorways.
Quality Underlay
Underlay can help to smooth, protect and strengthen your carpet, helping it to last for the little bit longer. This should be fitted carefully and cut using a Stanley knife.
Fitting The Carpet
To begin, loosely lay your carpet in the location where it will be installed and use one foot to hold up one corner. The other foot should then be used to gently smooth out the carpet. After it has been loosely laid, you should have around 10cm of excess at each edge.
Carpet Fitters Torquay
Take the carpet stretcher and position it about 25mm from the skirting board, making sure the teeth are facing down. Push the padded end down firmly with your knee, as this will force the carpet to hook on the gripper at each corner.
Take the carpet tucker and press it down between the skirting board and the gripper to push down any excess carpet. This process should be repeated until the first wall is finished, and then along the adjacent walls before moving on to the wall directly opposite. Finally, any door that enters the room should have a door bar installed.
Carpet Aftercare
Do not worry if your carpet starts shedding any fibre’s in the first few days after being laid, as this is perfectly normal. If it does, we suggest that you vacuum it daily, as this will ensure that it is kept clean and that all loose fibres are removed.
Carpet Fitters Near Me
However, if this entire process seems too hard, it’s always best to get a professional fitter in to do the job for you. Contact Direct Carpets today.
