What you should know before laying carpet
Wednesday 20 October 2021
All about laying carpet
Do you want new carpet in your home? There is no need to have the carpet laid - you can simply do this yourself! However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when laying it. This article tells you everything you need to know about laying your carpet!
1. Remove the old carpet
Do you already have carpet in your home and want to replace it with a contemporary new one? Then you will mainly need brute force to remove the current carpet. If the carpet is stapled, it will come loose relatively easily, but if it is glued down it will be a more difficult job. Is there carpet lathing along the walls of the floor? Then you must remove them first.
2. Laying an underlay
In some cases it is necessary to lay an underlay. This will level the subfloor, make the carpet last longer and also help with sound and temperature insulation. The underlay is logically placed under the carpet and therefore extends the life of the carpet. The most commonly used are the fibrous or synthetic types.
3. Laying the new carpet
Then it is time for the real thing! Always allow carpet to acclimatise first. This way you can prevent shrinking and stretching of the carpet. There are various ways of laying the carpet.
You can glue the carpet to the subfloor or a specially adapted subfloor.
You can glue the carpet in place using double-sided adhesive tape. Attach this adhesive tape to the edge of the carpet. This is not very suitable for larger surfaces.
You can also staple the carpet, although this method is rarely used - mainly because of concrete surfaces. For stairs, stapling is very suitable.
You can fix the carpet by means of nail slats along the edges of the room. These slats are in turn glued or nailed to the floor.
You can also lay the carpet completely loose. This works well for smaller rooms where the carpet can be laid wall-to-wall and without seams.