Tips for laying carpet....any professionals out here willing to share their expertise....?

Question

I have a 9 month old baby boy and I am considering carpeting my room so that he could crawl around easily....he is at the crawling stage but the floors are so cold and hard that i wanted to add some warmth and cushion for his gentle knees....I would like to do it myself if it sounds easy enough.....any thoughts?

Answer 1

You can lay carpet yourself. However, if the room or rooms are large enough to require seams, this will be difficult. Carpet comes in 12' and 15' widths so try to find a layout that avoids seams. So, if you want to go for it , here are some basic instructions.
Begin by installing tack strip 1/4" from the wall with tacks pointing toward the wall. This must be done around the entire perimiter including doorways.
Roll out pad and staple it down with a hammer stapler. Put staples every 16" or so around the perimiter of your room, and every 4" at any seams in the pad. It's also a good idea to stretch the pad a little with your hands or feet when you staple it. Trim the pad so that it stops just shy of the inside of your tack strip.
Roll out the carpet. You can buy or rent a knee kicker to stretch the carpet with but this will probably produce an inferior stretch, especially if you have never used one before. I suggest renting a power stretcher if possible.
Now, assuming your room is squarish, begin by trimming and tucking down one side of the carpet, then stretch away from the section you have trimmed and get the carpet to catch on the tack strip on the opposite wall. Continue down the wall until all the carpet is on the tack strip. You can then trim in that wall. Repeat the same on the other two walls.
I realize that this is a kinda scary kinda confusing explanation, but it's tough to tell you without showing. If you get into the job and want some more detailed instructions or need to seam some carpet, give me an e-mail and I'll try to help. 'ave fun.

Answer 2

not as easy as it sounds, if you have never installed carpet before get help from a friend that has, if it is a run with no joints it is not so bad, you will need carpet tack for the edges and a kicker, two people make this job a lot easier
Good Luck