How to Prepare a Floor for Carpeting

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Hammer
tackless tack strip
slap stapler
staples
carpet pad
a handful of nails
tack strip cutters
utility knife

Step 1

Make a clean start. Sweep or vacuum the whole floor and remove all debris. A little clump of drywall compound will feel like a baseball under your new carpet.

Remove all doors and floor vent covers.
Step 2

Lay out the Tack Strip. Being very careful not to cut yourself on the sharp points of the tack strip, read "The WHOLE piece of tack strip", lay it out around the rooms perimeter, end to end. For ease of installation, make certain that the points are angled towards the wall where you intend to the tack. If not, you will inevitably forget to turn them later and wind up with carpet that won't stay stretched.
Step 3

Pick a starting point and holding the tack about 1/2-5/8 inch from the wall, nail it to the floor. Do this around the whole perimeter of the room, making certain that the points are always angled towards the wall.

If you come to a section where the full tack strip is to long, like the end of the wall or a doorway, use your tack strip cutters to snip an appropriate sized piece and nail it into place.

Always make sure your nails hold firmly and your tack strip has a nail placed within 1 inch of the ends so the tack strip does not pull up when the carpet is stretched on to it later.
Step 4

If you are using a stretch metal trim piece for doorways, install this across the door way in such a way as it will be covered when the door is closed.

At this point, the entire perimeter of the room should have tack strip or stretch metal around it so be very careful where you step. Both of these items are very sharp.
Step 5

Clean up again. You will invariably find you have dropped a nail, a piece of tack strip or some other debris has made its way on to the floor. Sweep again just to be safe.
Step 6

Bring in your carpet pad. Carpet pad usually ships on a roll that is 6 feet wide so know the measurements of your room and plan your pads layout for the least amount of waste. For example, In a 12x20 foot room, you would roll out two strips of pad that would be 20 feet long.

Laying the pad out is easy. Simply lay the roll on the floor with the end touching the tack strip and roll it towards the opposite wall. Give yourself enough slack to successfully touch the tack on both ends and then cut the pad with your utility knife.

Please Note: Most carpet layers use a specialized utility knife with two sharp edges. These knives are nicknamed "Bloody Mary's" for a very good reason. Be very careful if you are lucky enough to get to use one of these little beasties.
Step 7

Take your slap stapler and fasten the end of the pad to the floor where it is just touching the tack strip edge but not extending over it. Then, in a half kicking, half shuffling motion, stretch the pad by walking to the other side of the room, never lifting your full weight off the pad until you have stapled the other end.

Overlapping the tack strip on this end is fine. We will fix that in a moment. You just want to be certain that the pad is stretched well so it won't bunch up or get torn during the carpeting process.

Repeat this procedure until all of the pad is fastened on each end.
Step 8

Now we need to fasten the sides of the pad. Go down one of the side walls and staple the pad every 4 to 6 inches. Then got to the other side of the same piece of pad and make sure it butts up to the next piece and staple both pieces every 3 to 4 inches, being certain that they touch but do not overlap. Repeat this step until you reach the other side of the room and then staple that wall as you did the other one.
Step 9

Finish the Pad Installation.

This is the step where many a flooring installer has lost their pound of flesh. Using the utility knife, carefully put the point along the inside edge of the tack strip and trim any excess pad that might extend over the tack strip. This is dangerous because you are working with sharp pointed tacks and a very sharp knife so the potential for injury is there. Be VERY careful.

This is also the point where you want to be sure you cut out the pad over any floor vents. It is much easier to find them now than when they are covered in a layer of pad and carpet. Carefully walk around the area where they should be, testing the area with your foot before applying your full weight to a step to avoid falling in the vent and twisting your ankle.
Step 10

The Final Clean Up. This step is important. Make certain you remove any pad cuttings or debris from the pad before the installation of carpet. It is hard to see the pad scraps because they blend in so use a very keen eye when doing the final clean up.

Comments

luvthepanda said

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on 9/2/2009 very good detailed instructions on how to lay padding/tackstrips and prepare for carpet. My wife actually used to sell flooring, so i've seen this done a lot (both well and poorly). Keeping clean is a great tip.
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