Questions To Ask Before DIY Carpet Installation
Whether you are choosing flooring for a new home or you’re remodeling an older home, you get the chance to choose colors, textures, and designs that make you the happiest. Once the fun of decision-making is over, however, you must turn your thoughts to carpet installation. Should you try to do this work yourself, or should you hire professionals for the installation?
Can You Save Money?
There is definitely a hard way and an easy way to approach installation. You may consider a DIY approach to this task, thinking that you can save money. However, there’s a long list of supplies you’ll need:
- Carpet strips
- Heavy-duty stapler
- Seam tape
- Hammer
- Chalk line
- Utility knife
- Measuring tape
- Rolling pin
These supplies don’t include the protective gear you should wear, such as knee pads, safety glasses, and work gloves.
There’s also a list of heavy-duty equipment to rent:
- Power carpet stretcher
- Wall trimmer
- Knee kicker
- Seam cutter, roller, and iron
- Strip cutter
Once you’ve purchased and rented all of these supplies and equipment, you may not have saved much money at all.
Do You Have Time?
Your next step is to empty the room or rooms of all the furnishings, belongings, appliances, and other belongings. After moving all of this out of the room, it’s time to pull up the existing flooring, including any subflooring. Don’t forget to remove the tacks and carpet strips around the edges of the room. Take out the floor molding and any door trim. In fact, it may be necessary to take down the door or doors. Finally, sweep up all dirt and debris, so your new flooring adheres properly.
Are You Skilled?
With these tasks complete, all you have left is checking for weaknesses in the subfloor and the installation of new carpet tack strips, the carpet pad, and extra padding when necessary. Finally, you can roll out the new carpet, stretch it into place, trim it to fit snugly, and firmly attach the carpet to the floor.
DIY carpet installation is the hard way to handle what should be an exciting time. Choose the easier route of hiring professionals to handle the installation.