The Key Steps Involved In Cutting And Preparing To Lay A Carpet 

Before you even lay your new carpet down you should prepare the room, fit underlay and protect grippers. Start by vacuuming the entire floor, make sure there’s no loose dust and check the whole floor for any loose screws, holes, or other imperfect surface defects. Next you should lay down a thick layer of underlay, this will help stop the sound of your feet against the new carpet. Also buy some new carpet fitting tools like a wool rug, as the carpet is very sensitive to vibration.

The next step is to take a shop-vac or work-torch and heat the carpet to soften the fibres. If you don’t have a shop-vac, this won’t be necessary but don’t risk burning yourself. Once you’ve softened the fibres, jack up the carpet Tucker and push it down on each individual piece, ensuring that the knee pads overlap. You can do this over again until all the knee pads are covered, then turn the tucker over and do the same thing to the other side.

Once you’ve got the knee pads on, cut along the grain. Use a carpet knife to cut along the grain, being careful to avoid cutting through the backing. You can use a broom handle to clear any excess glue that remains after cutting. Be careful not to cut too far into the carpet fibres. It may be necessary to sand the area a bit before using the knife again to ensure it’s straight and even.

Next you’ll need to measure where you want the door to go and work out the square footage of the opening. For example, if your door is 20 inches wide by six inches tall, you’ll need an opening of two feet by six feet, or so you need. You’ll need to make sure you get this measurement correct. Once you’ve got this information in hand you can either purchase a ready-made carpeting entrance or cut one yourself from scratch. If you’re going to make a custom cut, then the chances are you’ll need a few other tools such as a tape measure, pencil and a ruler.

Now it’s time to cut the carpet. Hold the piece of carpet to the shortest side, pull on the closest tack and cut along the line. Once you reach the wall, stop and turn the piece around, so that it’s now facing the wall. Keep cutting along the line until you reach the desired height.

After you’ve finished, unroll the carpet underlay all the way down to the floor, making sure it lies flat. Use a rubber mallet to tap each end of the strip to ensure it lies flat. The strips are connected together with tack strips. The strips are then turned over, right-side up, and trimmed flush with the edge of the floor. The last step of carpet fitting involves the installation of the grippers.

You need two nails for every twenty-four inch square, so make sure you nail the first strip into the sub-floor securely. Start nailing from the center, going all the way to the wall. Lay the carpet over the strips and make sure they’re perfectly even – you may have to adjust them a little bit. When installing the nails, lay them just below the first row of nails, but not exactly where the underlay stops. This will keep the underlay in place and the carpet itself in good shape.