Before re-carpeting your home, first you must determine the area of the room. Measure the longest walls in your room. Multiply the length and width, and divide by 9 to determine square yardage then add 10 percent to allow for errors, irregularities and pattern matching. It can vary as to how much it will cost to re-carpet a room. You’ll need to decide what carpet to buy. Carpet with a lower quality will be less expensive, but it will also wear out faster. You can keep an eye out for sales and specials.
The first thing to do after purchasing the raw materials is to clean the subfloor. That means you (or your contractor) need to make sure the surface to be carpeted is smooth and clean, swept and vacuumed thoroughly. If possible, you’ll want to remove the doors from the room you’re carpeting so you won’t have to work around them. Having the doors out of the way will also make it easier to cut off the bottoms of the doorjambs if need be.
Now we’ve got to install the carpet pad. You need to lay out the carpet pad perpendicular to the direction you plan to install the carpet and staple it near any tackless strips you’ve laid down with a staple hammer. Staple the seams of the pad, alternating staples so that they aren’t beside one another then be sure to stretch the padding so that the pieces are butted tightly together.
Once you’re ready to unroll some carpet, measure the room at its longest point and add 3″ to that measurement. Take the carpet outside if possible, and notch the back on both sides at the appropriate length. The carpet will be easier to handle outside in the open at this point. You can even use the driveway to roll out the carpeting. Roll out the necessary area of carpet then run a chalk line from notch to notch. Cut the back of the carpet along the chalk line, roll up the freshly cut carpet and take it back inside. Those extra 3” mean you don’t have to cut it perfectly at this point.
Roll out the carpet in the room keeping it as straight as possible. Cut away excess carpet but leave extra next to the walls. Lay out any additional carpet needed to fill the room and glue any seams together. Trim excess carpet with a wall trimmer which rests against the wall and provides a straight cut at the correct spot. Use a stair tool to press the cut edges underneath baseboard trim. Finally, use a power stretcher to get the carpet thoroughly stretched.
Re-Carpeting Your Home
