Carpet Not Nailed Down

For wall to wall carpeting carpet tack strips should be installed around the edges of the room leaving a space about the width.

Carpet not nailed down.

Grab the cut end of carpet and pull it from the stairs using gloved hands. Beautiful hardwood stairs will be ruined by the addition of carpeting because the tack strips need to be nailed down creating holes in the wood. Carpet tacks are strips of wood designed to hold a carpet in place so that you don t have to nail the carpet directly to the floor. Pry up the metal nosing and remove it if present.

Carpet tack strips can usually remain in place but look for rust rot or other damage. The first step before installing carpet tacks is to make sure the floor is clean. The carpet is laid loosely over the floor. Cut to fit carpet installation a cut to fit carpet installation is not a bona fide installation.

An installer will cut the carpet to fit a room exactly but the carpet is not attached to the floor. If you are pulling up carpet from stairs. It is difficult to fix unattractive stairs because they do not lend themselves to painting. Carpet works wonders on stairs like this.

Tack strips are sometimes called tackless strips because they eliminate the need for using individual carpet tacks to hold carpeting to the floor. Cut the carpet padding to place on the tack strips. Begin at the top of the stairs. It should be approximately 3 inches longer than the flat portion of your stair so it wraps under the lip of the stair and it must be 1 4 inch shorter than the size of your carpet runner so it adequately pads without sticking out on the edges.

Nail the tack strips to the wooden subfloor or if installing carpet over concrete use masonry tacks or an epoxy adhesive attach the strips to the floor.