| INSTALLING WALL-TO-WALL CARPETING
Here's how to lay jute-backed carpet, which is secured with tackless strips rather than adhesive. Before you begin, sketch the room on graph paper. Add 3 inches to each carpet dimension to allow 1 1/2 inches along each wall for fitting. Also buy carpet padding, enough tackless strips to go around the room perimeter, and drywall nails to attach the strips. You'll need a hammer, shears to cut the strips, a carpet knife with extra blades, a straight-edge, a staple gun to attach the pad, and a screwdriver to tuck in the carpet edges. Rent a power stretcher and a knee kicker. To prepare the room, remove doors from their hinges and grilles from the floor.
Install the pad with the scrim (smooth) side up. Rough-cut a too-wide carpet in a larger space. Cut cut-pile carpet from the back. Spread loop piles apart and cut from the front. Make relief cuts in corners and at doorways so that the carpet lies flat. Lay the carpet over heat ducts; cut the openings later. When stretching carpet, reposition the stretcher often, and never leave more than a 4-inch gap between stretcher-head positions. Your final stretch should be diagonally opposite your starting corner.
At doorways, use metal transition strips for vinyl or tile. For wood, use metal or wood, or trim and tuck the carpet. The transition should occur under the door.
How Is It Done?
- Nail tackless strips around the perimeter, Vs in. from the wall, with pins angled to the wall. Use drywall nails; put at least two in each strip.
- Lay the pad and cut it to fit along the edges of the tackless strips. Staple it every 4 in. along watts and seams.
- Lay the carpet and cut it to fit with 1 1/2-in. extra along each edge.
- In one corner, press the carpet backing onto the tackless pins by rubbing it hard with a hammerhead. Work out about 5 ft. in each direction.
- Stretch the carpet into each adjacent comer with a power stretcher. Set the heel against a first comer baseboard and the head 4 in. from the opposite wall. Press handle until carpet is taut.
- Use a knee kicker to bump the carpet onto the strips and a hammer to press it onto the pins. Trim the carpet from the back side, leaving a 1/4-in. edge. Tuck the edge behind the strips.
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