Carpet Not Nailed Down

It is difficult to fix unattractive stairs because they do not lend themselves to painting.

Carpet not nailed down.

An installer will cut the carpet to fit a room exactly but the carpet is not attached to the floor. Tack strips are sometimes called tackless strips because they eliminate the need for using individual carpet tacks to hold carpeting to the floor. For wall to wall carpeting carpet tack strips should be installed around the edges of the room leaving a space about the width. The first step before installing carpet tacks is to make sure the floor is clean.

If you are pulling up carpet from stairs. It should be approximately 3 inches longer than the flat portion of your stair so it wraps under the lip of the stair and it must be 1 4 inch shorter than the size of your carpet runner so it adequately pads without sticking out on the edges. Carpet tack strips can usually remain in place but look for rust rot or other damage. Grab the cut end of carpet and pull it from the stairs using gloved hands.

If not cut the carpet near the top of the top stair riser. Carpet works wonders on stairs like this. Besides most homeowners with nice wooden stairs wouldn t be. Beautiful hardwood stairs will be ruined by the addition of carpeting because the tack strips need to be nailed down creating holes in the wood.

The carpet is laid loosely over the floor. Pry up the metal nosing and remove it if present. Cut to fit carpet installation a cut to fit carpet installation is not a bona fide installation. Not suitable for heavy rolling traffic or extensive light duty rolling traffic.

Nail the tack strips to the wooden subfloor or if installing carpet over concrete use masonry tacks or an epoxy adhesive attach the strips to the floor.