How to nail Down Carpet
How To Lay Carpet [Step-by-step guide]
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I'm going to show you how to lay carpet. The tools we need to get this done are a smooth
edge, hammer, hoop nails, knee kicker, a couple of trusty knives, and a staple hammer. I recommend
knee pads for safety. We'll also need under felt to finish it off, a ripple trim, and
obviously the carpet.
So to prep my floor, I'm going to need a floor scraper, a broom, and a vacuum to get my sub-floor
perfect. Now I'm going to get everything out of the way so I can get started. For best
results, I need a perfectly clean floor, so what I'm going to do now is getting rid of
any plaster dag, preexisting staples, and making sure the sub-floor is perfectly clean.
Basically now, I've done my floor prep. I can now just run the vacuum over. So I'm going
to continue with my prep now, while laying out my Smoothedge.
So Smoothedge is a product that you spread around the perimeter of your wall with nails
facing the wall, and that'll allow you to get better grip when you're installing your
carpet. So now I've got my Smoothedge spread out. It's now time to secure it to the floor.
So remembering we need a required space off the wall, so therefore I would suggest maybe
a finger. So now I've got my Smoothedge down. The nails are facing towards the wall. It's
time to secure it by hitting the heads of the nails down.
So now I've got my Smoothedge down. I'm going to secure it with more hoop nails. You can
use a single stick of Smoothedge, but for my preference, for maximum grip, I like to
double up and use two pieces of Smoothedge. To do that, I recommend you cut one stick
in half first, and that'll allow you to stagger your joints for maximum strength in your Smoothedge.
Then, come back with another full stick.
So as you can see, I've now come to a corner. The way we get around that is just by grabbing
a bolster or tucker, hitting it with a hammer. Simple as that. For this, I'm going to put
an extra hoop nail in. The process is repeated coming around the wall, remembering to re-secure
your Smoothedge with additional hoop nails. So now, we continue this process around the
rest of the room.
So now I've finished my Smoothedge, and as you can see, I've doubled it up all around
the room. All but around the door jambs, as you don't need as much stretch to be held
around your door jambs. So now it's time to roll out my under felt and cut it to size.
When rolling out your under felt, it's best to work from one wall across to the other.
I'm now going to slide it into position. Make sure that your edge of your under felt is
hard up against your Smoothedge.
So now I've got my under felt in position. It's time to cut it in. The easiest way to
do that is by grabbing a knife hard up against the back edge of your Smoothedge, and just
following that around the perimeter of the room.
Now time to cut into my door jambs. It's just as simple as folding it back, and following
the line. And repeat that around the rest of the room. When stapling your under felt
down, you're going to need enough to make sure it's secure.
Now I'm going to roll out my second roll of under felt. Now I'm going to make sure that
my two edges of the under felt are sitting together, and that's commonly called a butt
joint. Now I've got my under felt in. I can now do as I've done on the other side, and
cut it all in. So now my under felt's down and secure. I'm now ready to carpet.
I'm going to bring it in, roll it out, square it up, and it's most important that when you
roll your carpet out, that you're actually walking into the pile so the pile is brushed
up. So now I've got it rolled out. What I've done is, I've squared it up by just kicking
it out with my feet. And as you can see, that's my straight edge, so that's my starting point.
So now I'm ready to start fixing my carpet. So what I need to do is I need to fix it to
the Smoothedge. To do that, it's just as simple as grabbing your knee kicker, and just tapping
it onto the Smoothedge.
In your DIY kit, you'll get a carpet tucker. What I like to do is, is just rub that against
the Smoothedge. By doing that, that's going to penetrate the back of the carpet, and give
you good anchorage. When you using one of these, it's important to center your shoulder
above your hand. That allows you maximum weight so you don't slip and pull your carpet out.
So as you can see, I've come down about a quarter of the way of the room. Now what I
need to do is take the stretch down to the other side of the room.
The reason I'm starting here is because it's basically the same point where I finished
on the opposite wall, and I want to work to a corner. You never work down a wall. You
always work towards a corner. Now I'm at this point, and I've got the stretch across the
length, what I can do is I can tap this wall on, and then cut down my walls. By doing that,
I've ensured that I haven't over-cut or under-cut any walls.
Now I can start cutting down my carpet. Remember, when using a utility knife, always wear gloves.
Now I'm ready to tap the rest of the wall on. So now I'm going to take my stretch across
the width, and I'm going to keep it there by just putting in some hoop nails.
Now I've finished all my stretching. It's time to cut in. So what I'm going to do is
I'm actually going to cut from the back of the carpet. That way I'm reassuring myself
that I'm not cutting into my skirting boards and damaging them. To do that, utility knife
and gloves, once again. And all that we're doing is just getting as close as we can to
the edge of the carpet with a nice, sharp blade. Take your time. Then I can grab my
carpet tucker, and it's just as simple as poking it down behind the Smoothedge and the
skirting board. Then I'll continue that process around the entire room, until it's all tucked
and cut.
What I'm doing here is a seam join. The easiest way to do that is get a nail, put it between
the pile, and just gently manipulate it along, and it will just form a nice, straight line.
Once I've got that, then I can cut that open with a utility knife. So once again, put your
gloves on. Now I've got my seam ready. What I have to do is I have to position my tape
in position, and generally what you want to do is you want to make sure it's centered
under the first run.
What I need to do now is pull my carpet back towards myself, so I've got the two carpets
meeting together. I'm going to peel the protective layer off the tape, so therefore that'll expose
the adhesive. After that's done, I want to push one side down, then it's just as easy
as sliding my second piece to make sure, once again, they've joined together. Remember,
and when you're joining your carpet, it's very important that both piles are running
the same direction.
I'm continuing my carpet throughout the house, but if I wasn't, what I would commonly do
is I would cut one of these down, known as a ripple trim, and secure that across my doorway.
That would alleviate any trip points, and it would allow me to continue the transition
throughout the house. As you can see, it's time consuming, but DIYer can achieve a great
result. And that's how you lay carpet.
![How To Lay Carpet [Step-by-step guide]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E-CRDoPxF_c/mqdefault.jpg)
