How to Re-Stretch Carpet

Most carpet will stretch over time, especially in high traffic areas. This causes folds and buckles in the carpet that can quickly become hazards for people to stumble over. Re-stretching carpet is a straight forward, easy process and does not require the services or cost of a professional carpet layer.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hammer
• Carpet stretcher
• Knee pads
• Carpet knife with extra blades

1. Remove any furniture from the room. The carpet must be free of anything on top of it in order to stretch it properly.

2. Put on your knee pads.

3. Remove any door thresholds or baseboard molding that is on top of the carpet. Careful not to crack the molding as you remove it with the hammer.

4. Pull back the edges of the carpet from the tack strips. Do this all around the room.

5. Starting at the middle of one end of the room, reset the carpet onto the tack strip. Just reset this middle point.

6. Think of your room as a clock face. Go to the center of the wall you have just reset and think about it as the 6 o'clock point. Now face the opposite wall and you are looking at the 12 o'clock point.

7. Set up your carpet stretcher, and stretch into place the 12 o'clock point.

8. Release the stretcher, and then move to the 9 o'clock point in the room. Turn around so you are now facing the 3 o'clock spot. Set up your stretcher and stretch the 3 o'clock point into place. If you had previously set up a good tension between the 12 and 6 o'clock points, 3 o'clock will set into place easily and tightly.

9. Release the stretcher and then move into place at 3 o'clock in order to set the 9 o'clock spot on the opposite wall.

10. Repeat the steps above, but now for the corners (or diagonals) in the room. Work your way around the room in this manner, stretching the carpet into place every 3 to 4 feet.

11. Trim off any excess carpet with your carpet knife, now that the whole carpet has been tightly reset onto the tack strips.

12. Replace any molding or threshold you had removed.

Tips & Warnings

• Any good tool equipment rental yard will have carpet stretchers in various sizes available for inexpensive rental. You'll need a stretcher that can extend as wide as the widest portion of your room. For a standard size living room, you can do the job in under an hour. Carpet knife blades dull very quickly because carpet is so thick to cut. Change to a new blade every 10 to 15 feet of cut. You can make sure not to mar your baseboards by placing a cloth between it and the butt of the carpet stretcher.