Do-it-yourself carpet laying: methods and their implementation

Do-it-yourself carpet laying

Carpet or carpet creates a special cosiness in the house. Both adults and children love him, because it is such a pleasure to walk barefoot on the soft, warm floor. In addition, the huge range of carpets existing on the market today will allow you to choose a carpet for any interior. Choosing a carpet in terms of quality and color is a simple task, but laying a carpet is quite a responsible job, especially if you do it yourself. In this article we will tell you how to do it right..

Content

• Calculation before purchase
• Start: ground preparation

• How to prepare a concrete base
• Prepare a wooden rough floor
• Will I need a backing?
• Unfolding carpet

 

Carpet laying methods

Installation without fixing

Innovative method and scotch tape

If you decide to stick

Multi-piece combination

 

Features of laying carpet

 

Calculation before purchase

The calculation of the carpet is carried out in such a way that it is a whole piece. This will be better from an aesthetic point of view, and also affect the life of the coating. Of course, the carpet is not taken strictly according to the size of the room.

How to do this in practice? We draw a plan of the room, on which we designate window and doorways, niches, radiators. We measure all distances (we do it ourselves, do not take data from the technical plan of the house – there may be errors). Measuring the carpet, we leave a margin of several centimeters on all sides. According to professionals, correctly taken measurements are the key to successful styling. In the store, they may tell you which carpet will lie better.

Start: ground preparation

Before you start laying carpeting, you must carefully prepare the base.

How to prepare a concrete base

For a concrete base, the following work must be done:

• level the floor with putty;
• remove the previous coating, remove the remains of glue;
• primer the floor to remove dust (if the dust remains, it will later break through the carpet).

Prepare a wooden rough floor

If the base for the carpet is a wooden floor, it can be prepared in 2 ways:

1. lay chipboard on the floor surface, putty the joints and primer;
2. remove the nail caps, remove the screws and other protruding parts, and cycle the wooden surface, primer it and then use a self-leveling wood mixture.

There are several important points that you need to take into account when preparing for laying your own carpeting:

• before laying the carpet must be kept for a day in the room;
• in the room where the carpet is laid, there should be no drafts so that waves and wrinkles do not form on it: in the future, these failures will not be easy to correct;
• if you want to save on a primer, you can use a mixture of PVA and water instead;
• so that the laying of the carpet with your own hands proceeds normally, the temperature of the air in the room, as well as the floor, glue and coating should not be less than 17 ° C;
• humidity in this room should be between 10-65%.

Will I need a backing?

Many people when ignoring carpeting ignore the substrate, but this will necessarily adversely affect further operation. With its application, the service life of the carpet is doubled. The substrate gives the coating strength and resilience, in addition, sound insulation is improved and the floor will be warmer. The carpet laid on the substrate will get the effect of thick.

What is chosen as a substrate? Most often, flat or corrugated rubber serves for this, and also foam polyurethane. Its thickness is 5-10 mm. In conditions where a large cross is expected, the substrate is better to use thinner and stronger, and in a room with a small cross – thicker.

When laying the substrate, you need to leave 8-10 cm above the baseboard in stock. The corners are cut out in the form of the Latin letter V. There is no need to glue the backing from one sheet, but if you want to be safe, then you can glue the edges in the door area and under the baseboards. Align the substrate with a roller, in the direction from the middle to the walls..

Unfolding carpet

When everything is ready for laying the carpet, the roll can be laid out on the floor from the corner to the opposite wall. The edges do not need to be adjusted immediately under the baseboard, it is better to first lay them on the walls. They can be useful in places of doorways and niches to which the carpet will fit. After laying, the web is rolled using a roller from the center of the floor to the walls.

Above the threshold, you can make diagonal cuts to begin with, and after finishing the installation, it will become clear how much excess material needs to be cut. To cut evenly, you need to purchase a perfectly flat board. By applying it, the excess is removed by the cutter. To lay the cover under the radiator, excess carpet is cut from two sides in parallel strips. Thus, the required area will be measured accurately. Having finished this work, you need to put the load in several places so that the canvas does not move.

When unfolding the carpet, it is worth considering some features:

• Carpeting is laid in a whole piece over the entire room; laying it down from pieces is not recommended. But if nevertheless this could not be avoided, then the canvases should only be docked along the factory edges. It is necessary to make sure that the joint is parallel to the incidence of light, and then try to hide it under the furniture.
• It is necessary to make sure that there are no wrinkles or swelling on the laid coating..
• To avoid bumps, it is better to start carpet trim not from the corner, but from the center.

• The excess coating is cut off in place, leaving a margin of 0.5-1 cm from the wall. Such gaps are needed to prevent bloating and wrinkles. The carpet after this is still matured and repaired, so that the stock will increase slightly.
• The most important condition when laying the carpet is that it does not rest against the walls against the edges..
• To hide the joints between rooms, you need to install special sills. In stores today, such guns are presented in a large assortment: from different materials (aluminum, brass, anodized, painted), different sizes and all kinds of color shades.

• Carpet laying should be done so that the pile has a direction to the exit (for easy cleaning).

Carpet laying methods

Installation without fixing

Stretching the carpet is carried out using a special tool – a knee kicker. If the base is wooden, the cover is attached to it with brackets. And if the foundation is concrete – skip this step.

After trimming the excess carpet and stretching the canvas, a plinth is installed around the perimeter of the room. This work must be done carefully so as not to damage any of the materials..

Innovative method and scotch tape

This method is cheaper than others, since it only needs carpet and adhesive tape. However, attaching to tape is less durable. Most often, this method is used with frequent updating of the room or when the carpet is periodically cleaned..

Double-sided tape is glued with parallel strips throughout the room, then they remove the protective layer from it and pull the carpet on it.

If it is assumed that many people will constantly be in the room, then in this case the method of laying on glue is better, since fixing with double-sided tape will not be enough.

If you decide to stick

This method is more time consuming, but it helps prevent damage. Glue is applied in a thin layer on the entire floor..

Then they lay a carpet on top and smooth it with a roller to eliminate bumps and swellings. They work with glue according to his instructions. Having glued the carpet, install the baseboard and, where necessary, metal battens.

It is difficult to remove the carpet after gluing, so it will be unsuitable after that. When laying the carpet, the room should be closed to avoid drafts. After the glue has dried, the room must be ventilated to remove a specific odor..

Multi-piece combination

This method is the most time-consuming and is used in large rooms. In this case, you can coat the entire floor with special glue, or you can use different methods of fastening.

Consider the option of combining carpet tiles with carpet.

Tile is glued with special glue starting from the wall. With an uneven wall, tile laying begins from the second row, leaving part of the floor narrower than the width of the tile. Glue is applied with a roller or brush..

Next, lay a rolled carpet. First, it is evenly cut out, double-sided tape is glued to the floor, the protective layer is removed from it and the carpet is laid, pulling, to avoid wrinkles and swelling.

The rolled carpet is laid with an overlap on the tiled carpet. Then, a connecting line is cut out using a cutter with a cutter. A double-sided tape is glued near this line, on which a rolled carpet is mounted.

Features of laying carpet

We examined the sequence of works that the carpet laying technology provides, but there are some points that need to be taken into account so that the quality of these works is impeccable and the laid carpet lasts a long time:

• if the carpet consists of several parts, the direction of the fibers should be the same;
• the joints between the carpet sheets are glued with special glue or PVA at a width of 15 cm, after which the load is put on it for several hours;
• the carpet is pressed along the perimeter with the baseboard, only joints are glued;
• after laying the carpeting, it must not be walked on for 24 hours;
• the holes in the carpet under the pipes are fixed with colorless tape, since over time, if you do not do this, it may begin to peel off;
• if the carpet is fixed only with skirting boards, it will not be possible to clean it later with a washing vacuum cleaner, nor can furniture be placed on wheels on it, since there is a risk that the carpet will be pulled out from under the baseboard;
• using the adhesive method, the substrate is not laid.

 

Carpet – a practical, wear-resistant and aesthetic floor covering. This is an important component of the interior of the room. But in order to take full advantage of the qualitative characteristics of the carpet, you need to know how to properly lay it. If you are interested in this coating, then you should know that laying carpet – the price for which will be much lower when doing it yourself, is an affordable process. It can be learned from the above information..

Now you are armed with the necessary knowledge on carpet installation, it remains only to consult with a competent specialist who will help you choose the installation method and the necessary materials before starting repairs.