 Congratulations,
you've finished your brand new hardwood floor,
hopefully by following many of our valuable
suggestions. Now it's time to tuck away that carpet so
it provides a nice appearance. If you've decided on
keeping the existing carpet in some areas where it
meets up with the wood floor, here are some pointers
for you.
First, when removing the old
make sure both the carpet and carpet padding extend
over the area where the two floor coverings will meet
when you begin ripping up the old carpet. There's
nothing worse than finding your rushed tear out job
has the carpet a half inch short of the hardwood. Our
suggestion; allow a good four inches of carpet past
the middle of the door when it is closed.
Professional carpet installers
typically run a seam that connects two pieces in the
center of the doorway. This was the case here as well.
Cutting through carpet seams can be a real bugger if
you don't have the proper tools. Special carpet
cutting blades should be used for this job.. Be
careful, the blades are extremely sharp.
Next step is attaching the
carpet strip near the finished wood floor. You may be
wondering; where's the
threshold? Better quality hardwood installations don't
require thresholds unless it's a floating floor. The
better looking appearance is hardwood without
transitions against carpeted areas.
Carpet tack strip comes in
basically two varieties. One is designed for
installation on concrete and the other for wood
subfloors. The only difference is the type of nails.
Concrete tack strip uses hardened steel nails that can
penetrate concrete.
When installing the strip, fold
back the carpet and pad so it's out of the way and
place the strip approximately 1/2" away from the
finished wood floor. For thinner carpet you may want
to place it closer and vice versa for thicker
carpeting. The gap (gulley) is where the end of the
cut carpeting will tuck into.
Often this can be the most
daunting part of the job because there may be limited
work room, and you certainly don't want to ding up
that brand new floor! You may want to practice a few
times in another area just to get the hang of it.
Considering the concrete nails are only about 3/4 of
one inch long it only takes a few whacks to send them
home.
 Good
job, now we're onto the next step; cutting back the
carpet padding. Unfortunately we don't have a good
close-up of this one but you want to fold the padding
back over the recently installed tack strip. With a
sharp carpet blade cut the padding back about 1/4"
inch from the tack strip. Cutting too much away can
leave a telegraph effect in the carpet over time with
wear and cutting too long can have an effect on the
carpet staying stretched on the pins of the tack
strip.
With the right blade it should
cut through quite easily.
Ah, that ugly looking knee
buster is next! It should be noted, the carpet kicker
should not be used to stretch large
areas of carpet. Backing up to the point of when the
carpet was removed. It's wise to keep as much stretch
as possible in all existing areas where the carpet
will remain, unless you plan on the services of a
professional installer to handle finishing off the
carpet.
If you haven't removed much of
the stretched area, fold back the carpet over the tack
strip while placing most of your weight with hand over
the tack strip area. You don't have to kick hard to
get the carpet nudged. Basically we just want a firm
appearance on the other side of the hardwood.
While nudging, place pressure on
the carpet so it hinges to the pins of the tack
strip. Working right to left in this case nudging
every four or five inches along the length of the door
opening, keep the pressure on the tack strip area,
making sure it has grabbed and stays there.
Every installer is different and
may have alternate methods of doing this project. I
know, I've heard the insane bickering. Geez guys
you're different and the results are the same, why
bother?
In our case the installer has
kicked/nudged the carpet from right to left in the
doorway. For better assurance of keeping the stretch
intact, the installer in this case rubs with pressure
the blunt end of a clean hammer so the pins are
hinged to the carpet and will not loosen.
Finally more tricky stuff,
cutting the carpet to the correct length. I've seen
guys do this different as well. From just
placing the blade in the gulley and cutting straight
across... to well...like I said they all do things
differently. In our case the installer has notched out
the middle of the carpet that overhangs the hardwood
to begin cutting it back. This actually gives you more
control rather than starting to cut at the door casing
with limited room to actually start the cut.
How much to remove will depend
on the thickness of the carpet and
how much can be
tucked into the gulley between the carpet strip and
hardwood. In this case one quarter if an inch or so is
actually left overlapping the hardwood; ideal for a
good quality carpet tuck.
Some installers will add a bead
of latex in the gulley before the next step. Latex
will hold the rough cut end of the carpet intact much
better, preventing possible fraying of ends and
loosening of the edge in the gulley itself.
 Our
final step is tucking the carpet in between the tack
strip and hardwood. Once again I've seen different
tools used but the hook knife in my opinion looks to
be the best tool for this job, but I'm not a carpet
expert. |
