Things To Know About Carpet Residential Carpet Installation
Need To Know Information About Carpet Installation
Wall-to-wall carpeting in a residential setting can make small rooms look bigger. In addition, carpet provides a certain amount of sound proofing, and offer additional comfort to the feet.
All carpets consist of backing and surface pile. There are various types of pile used to make carpet. Some common types are polyester, nylon, polypropylene, wool and olefin. Each carpet pile has it’s advantage and disadvantage. Selecting the right carpet should be determined by your needs. In the USA carpet is mostly available in 12 and 15 foot widths.
Measuring and Estimating a Room of Carpet
Measure the room in the direction in which the carpet will be laid. To help spruce up long narrow rooms, checkout pattered carpet across the width of the room. When installing carpets in regular rectangular rooms, measure the room lengthwise. Be sure to include the full width of door frames so the carpet will extend slightly into any adjoining room(s) or hallways.
Estimating a Room of Carpet
Most retailers price carpet by the square yards, some by the square foot. For this blog post we will use the “square yard method.” To calculate how much carpet you need to install a room of carpet, multiply the furthest length by the furthest length in feet and divide the answer by 9. This method will give you the amount of carpet needed in yards.
Selecting a Carpet Pad
Choosing a Carpet Padding: Some carpet has what is called a cushion-backing or one piece. Carpet padding underlay is essential to a good carpet installation. Carpet padding helps prolong the life of the carpeting. It also adds comfort to the foot. In addition, carpet pad brings an increase in sound proofing.
The most common type of carpet padding for residential setting is re-bond. Although other padding types such, such as moisture barrier padding, rubber, sponge-rubber foams and felt cushions are available, re-bond is most commonly found in residential houses in Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill area.
Preparing the Floor
To have the best and most successful carpet installation over a wooden floor. It is best that the floor is warp free, with all nails hammered down flush. Secure any loose floorboards and plane down any high ridges.
Concrete floors that have surface ridges or cracks should be treated beforehand with a floor leveling compound. Liquid compounds are also useful for sealing the surface of powdery or dusty floors. Sealing the concrete floor prior to carpet installation will help keep dust from working its way up through the padding and into the carpet pile.
Carpeting installed over concrete should have closed-pore type backing to help keep moisture from damaging the carpet. Installing standard padding over floor tile is not recommended due condensation build up and lack of ventilation. Floor tiles accumulate moisture when carpet is laid over them: this condensation soaks through into the carpet and may eventually cause a musty odor and may produce mildew stains.
How Residential Carpet is Fastened
Tack strips are used to hold carpet in place over pad installations in a residential setting. Tack strips are four foot wooden strips battened with multiple spikes projecting at a sixty degree angle. The wood strips are nail or glued to the floor around the entire room about a quarter inch from the baseboard. It is important that the spikes are facing toward the wall. The spikes grip the backing of the carpet to hold it in place. On concrete or stone floors tacks strips can be glued in place with special moisture resistant adhesives.
It is important to protect doorways or exposed ends of carpet with metal binder, tap down bars or proper transition methods to get the most life out of installed carpet.
