Carpetting help please

message from Kevin Webb on 14 May 2004

I'm buying a first-floor flat and I am thinking of using Screwfix contract
rib carpet. A 25m roll should do all the rooms I need to cover. The contract
carpet is 2m wide so would be joined down the middle of each room as well as
each threshold. I haven't fitted narrow roll carpet before and I'd be
grateful for some help.
Anyone used Wickes contract rib carpets and able to comment on them?
Any general advice on fitting this type of carpet?
What I would need in the way of additional tools and materials?

Cheers. Kevin.

N. Thornton replied to Kevin Webb on 14 May 2004

Rib is generally rough, more for office than home.

Carpet tape to join it, gripperrod, hammer, tough knife, tough
scissors, screwdriver.

And if youve got boards with big gaps, some kind of sheet underlay. If
youre choosing rib I doubt youll be caring about soft squishy underlay
much - really I'd pick something else.

Regards, NT

Toby replied to N. Thornton on 14 May 2004

Carpet laying is a skill like plastering, it looks so simple that surely
there can't be much to it (oh contraire).
I would suggest going to a contract carpets place & getting the basic stuff
fitted by them. There won't be a showroom as such, but they usually have
enough of the stuff to show you. Great value.

N. Thornton replied to Toby on 15 May 2004

Well, I'll offer some contrary suggestions - why not :) I found it was
quite doable really, as long as you pay attention to getting the
carpet flat and in the right place before jamming it behind the
gripper rod, all is well. I would leave any excess carpet all round
until the latest time possible to cut it off, because stuffing carpet
into the grippperrod can cause it to move slightly.

I think its perfectly diyable with griprod myself, as long as you pay
attention.

Best place to get the gripper is probably screwfix.

Regards, NT

Archived message: Carpetting help please (UK DIY Home Decoration)