How do I put carpet on a hard wood floor without gluing it down?

Question

Unlike most people, I dispise hard wood floors. But me and my wife found a terrific apartment near good schools and a block from my work.

In the room that is to be my office, the wood flloor creaks and groans and announces itself with every goddamn step.

Is there a way to put down carpet without gluing it to the floor or having it bunch up in places and scoot around?

Please help me!!!

Answer 1

Actually "wall to wall" carpeting is not glued down. They put in hook strips around the outside walls then lay a pad. After this the carpet is put down and stretched in. Understand, you need to address the loose floorboards first, {creaking and groaning} or you will still hear it.

Answer 2

Ok no.1 Never glue carpet to hardwood floors. The floors will be destroyed. You only have two solutions.
A- WHich I feel is the best in your circumstance is to get a large area rug or carpet to fit the room and buy non skid area rug pad. It can be bought at home depot . It is a rubber mesh that when layed under your carpet or rug hold sit in place and also protects the floor from becoming scratched with the backing of some carpets.
B- Get Tackstrip which home depot also carries and nail it around the perimeter of the room with the pins or nails angled toward the walls and rent a power stretcher to attach it to the tackstrip. After removal of the carpet you will have to fill in holes that the tackstrip left with matching wood putty to keep your deposit in tact.
I would go with option a if it were me.
Good Luck on your decision.

Answer 3

Here is the perfect answer fo you. I am a landlord, and all of my houses have hardwood. Some of the tennants don't like it, so I go out and buy a piece of rug cut to fit the room, the have the sides bound. It will cost a little for the binding, but will serve the purpose. Then when you leave you can take it with you. You can even lay some padding down under it for extra comfort. If you put some baby power down on the hardwood before the carpet, it will stop the creaking. Trust me, this is the best solution, and answer!

Answer 4

You use tack strips placed about a 1/4-1/2 inch from the base boards. The carpet is stretched and the tacks grab and hold the carpet. Your floor will still squeak if you do not fix the underlying problem. The floor needs to be re-anchored to the joists with screws.

Answer 5

They never glue it to the floor. You buy softwood strips about an inch wide with a lot of little nails sticking up out of them and nail them around the periphery of the room. If you take them up later, nobody is likely to even notice the nail holes in the floor, and anyhow you can camouflage them. You put the wall-to-wall carpet down and all those little nails sticking up hold it in place nicely. The carpet will hold the pad in place. Cut the pad a little smaller than the carpet. It should fit snug inside the wood strips.

Answer 6

As you can see from most of the other answers, there is no one, definitive cause or solution. It could be the foundation, or the beams, or a combination of the two. You need to get a good contractor out to do an inspection. The house will need to be jacked back to its proper position, then repaired. God luck.

Answer 7

If the landlord will let you, put carpet tack strips around the perimeter of the room to attach the carpet to.

Answer 8

Use some strips of large (2" or so) double-sided tape.

Answer 9

Carpet wont stop the sqeeking...sorry.