Can I lay carpet over a hardwood floor?

Question

Or would it be better to remove the hardwood floor first?

Answer 1

If the hardwood floor is in fair shape, good wood, no rot etc. then lay the carpet over. MAKE SURE that you use a carpet padding under the carpet that won't slip on the finished surface of the wood flooring. They make padding material that won't slip.

Answer 2

Yes, that is what we did BUT... you must lay down vinyl, waterproof padding first. Do not use the standard carpet padding. If you don't use the waterproof kind, your hardwood floor will be forever ruined by moisture, should you decide to go back to it. Personally, I would rather have had the hardwood floor, but the carpet just insulates so well--in the winter the house is just so much warmer. Not to mention the floor is nicer to walk and sit on.

You do not need to remove the hardwood floor first. There would be no point in it. Just remember the waterproof pad, which also makes steam cleaning or shampooing the carpet a breeze. Usually it's the padding that holds on to mildew and odors, and with the standard padding, you can clean the carpet till the cows come home and the padding will just send its odors and stains right back into the carpet. The vinyl padding won't let moisture or stains into the pad in the first place, and there is also vinyl on the bottom that protects hardwood flooring.

I'd frankly recommend vinyl padding to anybody, hardwood floor owners or not. It doesn't break down; you can change carpet several times without ever replacing the vinyl pad. You don't get quite the "squish" factor, though.

Answer 3

Lay it over the hardwood floor. Just run some tack strip around the perimeter, and avoid putting it in any doorways, or pathways. Put down a good quality carpet pad (At LEAST 1/2 inch thick... 3/4 inch thick if you want a "plusher" feel to the carpet). Tape the seams of the pad together, (Duct tape works well, I prefer the "Gorilla" brand duct tape - This helps to keep the pad sections from pulling apart with traffic, etc) You can use a 'swing' stapler to tack the carpet pad in place, every so often. If you don't own one, you can rent one.
Use a good carpet seaming iron, and seaming tape, to join carpet seams, where necessary. Again, this tool can be rented - I wouldnt buy it just do lay carpet one time. Final tip - use a "power stretcher" rather than a "knee kicker" to stretch the carpet. Stretch it in both directions, cutting holes for vents lastly.

Carpet is very forgiving... if you get an uneven cut, or cut too short, simply stretch the carpet a bit more to move the mistake out of the way.

You can tell if you have stretched the carpet enough by going to the center of the room, and grip the carpet knap, and lift up on it. You should only be able to lift it about 3 to 4 inches...at the center of the room.... if you can lift it any more than that, or at any other location, then you need to stretch it a bit more, and trim off the excess.

It is also fairly normal to need to stretch a carpet after about 6 months, and in the future, any time it has been steam cleaned, or shampooed. (Getting the carpet wet, relaxes the fibers)

Where the carpet comes in contact with tile, or other surfaces, you can use a 'carpet bar', or 'self edge'. Carpet bars come in gold or silver color. You nail them to the floor, tuck the carpet into them, and hammer down the 'bar' to help grip the carpet. When you do a "self edge", this is simply turning the edge of the carpet under, and stapling it to the floor. (Use a pneumatic staple gun) Either method works just fine, but you get a different look.

Have Fun

Answer 4

Yes, carpet has been laid over tens of millions of square feet of hardwood. Now, it is being pulled up from tens of millions of square feet of hardwood. If you really prefer carpet to having the floor refinished, ask the installer (or maybe you'll be doing the work) to lay down a vapor barrier BEFORE the padding. This will protect the floor somewhat for the future. In stall good quality 3/4 pad. Be aware that pad is stapled to a wood substrate, so you will have hundreds of small holes in the hardwood which collect dirt and will require refinishing of the floor should you change your mind.

GOOG LUCK :)

Answer 5

Yes you can lay carpet over the hardwood. We just bought a house and we had to. The painter wasn't paying attention and thought we said we wanted carpet and he didn't cover the floors and ruined them. Well, since he goes to our church and the cost to repair the floors was expensive, we tried to keep trouble down so we just bought new carpet and had it installed. We did however have to cut all our doors off 3/4 of an in inch off the bottom to make room for the new carpet and padding I'd rather had the hard wood floors.
Now we have carpet we had to go get a new sweeper. (Vacuum)

Answer 6

Yes, you can lay carpet over hardwood. The carpet will usually be higher than the other flooring, say like kitchen or bath floors. The only reason I would remove the hardwoods if there was any damage from water or any roting.

Answer 7

Yes you can , but the real question is WHY ?? I agree, carpet is a dirt trap!!!

But, ...... if you insist. you need to place down the tackless strip around the walls. Staple down the carpet pad, and then install the carpet using a knee stretcher. No removal of hardwood necessary.

Actually this is the TOTAL opposite of what any of my clients want to do. They want to rip up carpet to reveal the hardwood or rip out the carpet and place down hardwood or tile. I suggest you really do some research and hard thinking before this project.

Answer 8

yes you can but over time dust and such would collect under the carpet and pad, which would cover the finish on the hardwood. say 20 years down the road the hardwood would have to be refinished and there you go the hardwood is alive and kickin again. they make carpet with pad attatched so that might help as well.

Answer 9

NO! The carpet MUST be removed (including the padding ) BEFORE you can lay any hardwood flooring down.

Answer 10

why remove the hardwood? If you lay carpet over it who is going to see it, besides which, you may change your mind later and decide you want the hardwood back again.
After all carpeting is only tacked on the sides against the walls, so it isn*t as though you would have to redo the whole flooring thing if you changed your mind.