A carpet can be the difference between homeliness and inhospitable, between warm welcome or cold shoulder. The feeling under foot, the texture on your toes, the lift it brings to matters cosy – a carpet is a key component in making your house a home. After such a ringing endorsement, we’re assuming you’ve rushed out (or shopped online) and bought your favourite carpet by the time you’ve got to the end of this sentence. So, time to get it installed and get comfy. But how do you actually fit a carpet?
It takes a whole lot of expertise, experience and preparation. While we can try to DIY it ourselves, it’s a momentous task that requires specific steps and skill sets. A word of caution, the best fitting is often courtesy of a professional third party. Most carpet fitting costs are quite reasonable and will save you the hassle of navigating unheard of parts and processes. If you are intent in going it alone though, then here are 5 IDEAL tips for fitting a new carpet.
TAKE MEASUREMENTS & CLEAN THE FLOOR
First things first, you have to measure the room carefully and draw a room plan with the help of the graph paper. Make sure that you purchase more carpet (around 10-15 percent should be enough) than the measurements, keeping room for miscalculations and human error. The floor panels might be dusty so you have to clean the floor panels properly before starting the work as dust can hamper the new carpet’s settling in.
INSTALL CARPET GRIPPER
Next up, you have to fit carpet grippers to your existing floor. Carpet grippers are usually used to reduce the chance of slipping and movement and help you to put your carpet in place. These are very lean and long in shape with the sharp pins in one side of it. Carpet grippers should be placed on the border of the wall excluding the doorsteps. However, installation of carpet gripper can be risky to you as the nails are very sharp as well as the incorrect installation of carpet gripper hampers the carpet fitting.
INSTALL SOME UNDERLAY
The next step is you have to choose right underlay for your carpet. If you want the carpet longevity then you have to install the right underlay for it. It will be better to use lining paper before applying the underlay as it makes the underlay non-sticky as well as preventing the carpet from accumulating dust and dirt on the floor. Lt Flooring, who are carpet fitters in Colchester, recommend going for thicker and denser underlay in the busiest parts of the house, especially parts with lots of traffic or underneath a lot of heavy furniture
CUT YOUR CARPET IN SIZE
The next cog in the wheel is cutting the carpet to the right size, according to the measurement previously taken. The help of carpet tucker will make the task more manageable. It’s recommended that you have to leave extra carpet as it stretches with continuous use, as well as any errors in the initial calculation. Once it’s cut and put in place, ensure that the carpet is fully attached and stretched against the wall.
HIRE A CARPET FITTER
The processes of fitting a carpets are not as easy as the youtube videos and wikihow slideshows might imply. In many cases, it can become a tedious and error-prone task. Just some of the hurdles and pitfalls lying in wait are possible errors in the calculation, getting your grippers wrong or lining up the underlay improperly.
In the face of such risks, it’s advisable to have your fitting handled by the experts, such as a third party. Seek a carpet fitting cost calculation online to compare best prices, and you’ll be in carpet-comfort heaven in no time.
