Laying foam backed carpet
Step-by-step
Step 1 Line the floor with strong brown paper or several layers of newspaper to prevent the foam backing sticking to the floor— otherwise it may disintegrate if you try to take up the carpet at a later date. Lay the paper to within 50mm of the skirting board. Join the pieces with adhesive tape and stick down the edges with double- sided tape. In large or busy rooms, use the tape across the rooms at 750mm intervals and cut the lining paper tofit between the strips. Put down double-sided adhesive carpet tape around the room without removing the upper peel-off backing paper.
Step 2 Unroll the carpet, check the pile direction is correct, and smooth it gently into place with your hands. Using scissors or trimming knife, cut the carpet about 50mm oversize in each direction to allow for possible shrinkage. Make a template for awkward shapes. Step 3 Avoid placing seams directly over joins in the underlay. Match up the pile and pattern of the two pieces of carpet and cut one good edge using a straightedge and trimming knife Use this edge as a template for the second piece of carpet. If there’s a selvedge, use this as your edge. Butt the two edges firmly together and anchor them with weights about 75mm in from either edge.
Fold back both edges and lay double-sided carpet tape centrally under the join. To increase the strength of the seam and prevent fraying, apply latex adhesive to the primary backing of the cut edges, taking care not to get it the carpet pile. Remove the upper backing paper and, starting atthe centre of the join, press one carpet edge down Fold down the other edge ensuring a tight butt join before pressing down. Take care not to catch down any of the pile into the seam.
Step4
Leave the carpet to settle fora week or two before trimming. Avoid snipping the tips of the pile by cutting from the back through the foam and only just through the primary backing. You should use scissors only if your carpet is loop pile. Apply aline of latex adhesive to the edges of the primary backing Remove the upper backing paper and press the carpet into position.
Step 5 Fix a metal edging strip at the doorway to protect the have
exposed edge of the carpet and prevent it from becoming afoot trap Step
(use a double-edging strip if there is a fitted carpet in the adjoining’. the ei
room). Trim the strip to size with a hacksaw and position it so that and s
it is hidden when the door is shut. Hammer down the metal lip over strip the carpet edge using a wooden block between the two. If the door hook catches on the carpet, fit rising butt hinges or trim. lip.
Laying carpet with underlay
Step-by-step
Step 1
Nail or glue gripper strips end to end around the room with the angled pins pointing towards the wall—leave a gap equal to just less than the thickness of the carpet between the gripper strips and the skirting boards. Cut the gripper strips into short lengths to follow irregular shapes such as doorways and bay windows— use at least two nails per strip and lay them with small spaces between them. Use a small hammer or nail punch to avoid flattening the gripper pins. If you use contact adhesive, cut each gripper strip into several shorter lengths to minimise the effect of slight bumps in the floor.
Step 2
Put down the underlay and trim it so that it just butts the edge of the gripper strips when smoothed out. Secure it with tacks ordouble -sided adhesive tape. Unroll the carpet, ease it about l0mm up one wall and press It onto the grippers. Make any seams using the technique forfoam-backed carpets but use tacks as temporary anchors and fix single-sided adhesive carpet tape to one edge and then to the other.
Step 3
Adjust the teeth of the knee kicker so that they grip the carpet backing without penetrating the underlay. Kneel down and press on the head of the kicker with one hand. Using the other to steady yourself ‘kick’ the pad forward with your knee Follow the stretching sequence in the drawings. The last kick in each direction should hook the carpet on to the grippers.
Once the carpet is firmly in place, check that any seams or patterns have not become distorted by over- stretching.
Step 4
Trim the carpet oversize by 10mm in each direction. Push the edge of the carpet down into the channel between the grippers and skirting board using a thin piece of wood. Fix a carpet edging strip to the doorway as described under foam -backed carpets, but hook the carpet on to the angled pins before hammering down the lip.
1 Start at corner A, hook carpet about 300mm along walls
AB and AC Stretch from Ato Band hook on about 300mm along wall BD.
2. Hook carpet along the full length of wallAB. Repeat the procedure in direction Ato C. Then stretch carpet from C to D and hook on. Stretch across the full width of the carpet as you hook on to wall CID.
3. Stretch across the full length of the carpet as you hook on to wall RD.
