How do I fasten carpet tacking to a slab floor?

Question

I put new vinyl tile in my kitchen. In the spot where my kitchen meets my livingroom carpet I need to install a new metal divider and replace the old carpet tacking(which I had to tear out because I cut my carpet back 6"). I cannot fasten the tacking or the metal divider to my concrete slab floor. Any suggestions????

Answer 1

Forget what these others said about concrete nails, they won't work on well cured concrete, it's too hard. Get a hammer drill, 1/2" masonry bit, a piece of flat floor metal (1-2" wide), tin snips, a 1/2" dowel rod, a saw, caulk gun, and some construction adhesive. Cut the metal wit the snips to fit the doorway. Mark the spots on the floor where the nail holes in the metal will go. Use the drill and bit to drill holes on these spots about 1 1/2" deep. Shoot some of the glue into these holes. Shove the dowel as far down as you can and cut it flush with the floor. Now you can attach the metal to these new found wood spots in your concrete floor.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Hi,they make two different types of wood carpet tack strip. If you go into a store that has knowledge of the difference, they will be stocked separately from each other. One is made for wooden floors, and one for slab floors.The difference between the two are the tacks, or nails you secure them to the floor with. One is a concrete nail, and the other is a common,or box nail I believe. Unless you are aware of this, you would never know. So, How much you wanna bet,you picked up the opposite of what you needed? Good- Luck,and by the way, a drill hammer is what is used to tap them into place.(looks like a little hand held sledge hammer) Bye! Oh, and use small masonry anchors for the carpet divider. Bye again.

Answer 4

Good grief, what a circus of answers. Pay no attention to the people behind the curtain and listen to me.

The tacking: buy tack strip with nails made to penetrate masonry. Cut the pieces so you get the fit you want -do a test fit. Put contact cement (Formica glue) on the concrete AND on the back of the strip. Let it get fairly dry (it is not dry, really, read the can). Then press the strip down on the concrete -tacks pointed TOWARD the wall or opeing (away from the carpet). Push it down fairly hard and evenly. Be careful about those tacks stipping up. Remember to leave a gap of about 1/4" between the outside edge of the strip and the wall or base.

Now, while that sets up a bit, let's move on to the "divider." I'm assuming this is what's called "pound-down" or "fold-over" metal. That is, there is a metal lip that gets tamped down to clamp over the edge of the carpet. That being so, you need to make sure the edge of the carpet is trimmed exactly straight to just barely fall short of the fold in the metal, so when you tamp it down you don't "bunch" the carpet. But don't trim it YET!

What you want here is a piece of fold-over the is dead flat on the bottom so it will fit flush to the slab. You'll use the previously described glue method for this, too. There's a chance, though, you won't be able to find this WITH metal prongs punched out to act as "tacks." It is more likely that you'll find fold-over metal only with a slight metal lip that elevates is slightly off the floor -the glue won't work, then.

Either way, set down the metal and mark the slab where you'll need to drill holes. Make sure that there are holes at each end, within an inch of the wall. If there aren't any, then make then with a drill. Now use drill holes for plastic anchors. The anchors, screws to fit and a proper size drill bit are often sold as a set. You may or may NOT need a hammer drill -try what you already have; if it doesn't work, rent the hammer drill. Set the anchors in your holes, then glue/screw the metal down. The carpet should fall over the strip a bit. You'll trim it back in a moment.

Back to the tack strip. After its has 15 minutes or so to set up in place, drive the masonry nails through and into the slab. Hit the heads exactly square and HARD -just one or two blows should do it. If you miss-hit, you'll chip out the slab and the nail won't hold. If this happens, borrow a nail from an unused piece of strip and put it to the left or right of the one that went bad. Tap it in very straight so the point of it makes a direct hit on the slab for your next attempt.

Now it's time to kick the carpet back in place. Rent a knee kicker, ask the people how to use it. In your case, you're not so much interested in stretching the carpet wall-to-wall; you just want to snug it back up in the areas where it was pulled away. Accordingly, you can kick gently, keep the kicker in place, and tuck the carpet over the strips back to the wall.

Now back to your metal peice: use the kicker to generally get any bubbles or kinks out of the carpet, get it hooked on the tacks and push it over the metal a small bit more (if it does).. Have a helper STAND on the carpet in back of you to keep it in place. Now you can trim the carpet to be just shy of the inside of the fold-over part. Come back with kicker again to snug it in to this area. Start in the center and work to the side. Holding the carpet on the tacks with your thumb and fingers, hammer the metal gently down over the carpet, working back and forth from the center.

That's it.

Answer 5

You can get a piece of carpet bar, various colors and widths, at a home supply store, also get a piece of 5/18 wooden dowel rod and the same size masonry drill bit. Cut the carpet bar to the correct length with a hack saw, place it on the joint where you want the carpet to stop. Use a pen and draw where the nails go onto the vinyl. Drill the holes about 1 1/2 inches deep, vacuum out the dust, cut the dowel rod about1 1/4 inches long and tap them into the holes. Now you can nail the carpet bar in place, and remove it again if you need to replace the flooring later. PS, the holes can readily be filled in at a later date if you need to.

Chris

Answer 6

Some carpet tacking has concrete nails already started just drive them in. Look for that type. The transition piece is put down with some type of anchor,cut it to size. lay it down where you want and mark the holes,drill with the correct size masonry drill for the anchors your using and install the anchors. Screw it down with sheet metal screws. If your nails aren't working on the tack strip I would use anchors I cant see drilling 1/2 holes and using dowels the entire perimeter of the room seems like a lot of extra work.

Answer 7

A carpet stretcher gun will eject nails that will penetrate your concrete. Then nail down the divider on the carpet side and glue it to the tile or other floor covering in your kitchen.

Answer 8

I suggest going and getting the nails that are "shot" into the concrete. It is a relatively cheap and very effective way without much fuss. The fastener is driven in by something like a .22 caliber shell. It literally shoots them into the concrete.

Answer 9

If you are planning to start on your woodworking project, this isn't something you should use, it's something that you would be insane not to. Go here https://tr.im/qpMAM
Truth is, I've been a carpenter for almost 36 years, and I haven't found anything like this for less than 10's of thousands of dollars.

Answer 10

A little bit of toe nail is fine... but I agree together with you. Long nails are kinda low.