How to Install Carpeting

Nothing's better on a cool morning than bare feet on a cozy carpet, keeping your toes off the cold, cold floor. Bare wood may be beautiful, but carpeting both looks good and feels good. It brings design to a spartan room, it adds warmth to a chilly room, and it even provides quiet in a echoing room.

But putting down carpet can be daunting to the do-it-yourselfer. , because the tools are unfamiliar. Fortunately, the process isn't that difficult, whether you rent the tools or hire a pro to do the work for you.

If you hire a pro, installation should include the initial measurement (a pro is trained to see things that such as traffic patterns and incoming light, and can suggest the best places to hide seams) and a floor plan showing how the various pieces will be installed. With large rooms, a few seams are inevitable.

Good installers use a carpet trimmer. Some installers use a utility knife, but the exposed blade tends to hack up floors and baseboard moldings. While installers once used kneekickers for an entire installation, rooms larger than 10-by-10 feet should be power-stretched to keep the finished product bump-free.

• Print This Project
• Sign Up for Our Free Newsletters

Helpful Info

Video: How to Install Wall-To-Wall Carpeting

Step By Step: How to Install a Stair Runner

Need More Info? Ask a question on Floors