Rugs, Carpets and Carpeting - Carpeting Tips Please!!

Can anyone tell me the steps to laying carpet over an old hardwood floor? Mainly, the best way to stretch it? The room is 12 1/2' x 13 1/2'. The end 2 ft. of the room is plywood. (Used to be raised section that was torn out.) Son bought carpet 12' wide and was told we could stretch it to fit? Will it?? Would like to save money by doing it ourselves. Old house, no registers in the floor to worrying about. A quick reply is necessary. Thank you! Tusassy

You should be able to get a power stretcher from your local rent-it store. A knee kicker just won't do the job.

Make sure you have the tack strip installed about 1/2" from the wall so you can properly attach the carpet to same.

Good luck, this could be loads of fun.

Ted

I hate to give you bad news, but there is no way you will get a 12ft piece of carpet to stretch to 13 1/2ft. A professional installer would stretch a piece that size about 2-3 inches. You might get 6 inches if you really torque it (and if you are using a power stretcher with a stinger you are going to put some gnarley holes in your floor). I wouldn't even try it. Either get a bigger piece of carpet, or find something that closely matches that you can seam on to the end.

Sorry :(

You would need a power stretcher to stretch carpet from 12' to 12 1/2'. I believe it would break down the fibers in the carpet backing and you would have a mess. Finding more carpwt of the same brand and color and making a seam is the way to go.

as a rule you can stretch about 2 inches in 10 ft.
Thats length wise. Sideways...much less. Heat will help ALOT!
but you dont want to over stretch either. That can be bad as they all said