Rugs, Carpets and Carpeting - How wide is a 12ft. roll of carpet anyway?

I picked up out carpet today and found that it was only 142.25'' wide. Is that normal? One of the rooms I am doing is 141'' I thought it would be close but this I am afraid will need to be seamed with another short piece. Can I stretch tis to fit and still get a clean edge?

Irritating, isn't it? We are sold twelve foot goods, but it seldom actually comes twelve wide. I've seen it as narrow as eleven /nine. If you're marginal, it's never a good idea to count on a true twelve wide material. You may end up putting the seam in a different place in the doorway than you had intended or making your fill piece a little wider to get the doorway seams done. I have, on those rare occasions, put two seams in a doorway in order to make it work, but I really don't like doing that. Carpet stretches pretty good length wise, but not as much width wise. If the carpet, after seams are made, is partially covering the tack strip of the opposite wall, or the wall you'll be stretching to, you might make it. Just make sure the strip is down good or you'll pull it off the floor.

You need more info from your carpet retailer. How large is the selvage (factory carpet edge) on that carpet? It's been a while since I sold carpet, but the best I can recall there was a 3" selvage on each side.

Another issue that comes to mind is acclimation. Carpet, like any other floor covering, needs to acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the home in the rooms where it is to be installed. For carpet, 24-48 hours gives it time to acclimate and relax. Most installers drive up with the carpet and install immediately.

Don't forget that you will need to ventilate for at least 72 hours following installation to expedite and exhaust the off gassing of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) exhausted by carpet chemicals.

It is getting BAD!!!!!!


All carpets are made 12'2" wide off the loom. Loop pile carpets are usually shipped with what we call the selvage edge still attached. And your suppose to have an inch on each side, to bite into, to cut a good seam edge.

Cut pile carpets, have this selvage edge cut off. And yes, they get carried away!

Tuesday I had a 12 foot drop room with a z-bar at the doorway making me need about 12'1" total. No problem, I can stretch an inch easy. Well the carpet was 11'10½". I had to double strip both sides of the room. With my pole stretcher and a little double stretching, I pursuaded it to make it. Oh ya, and the padding wasn't 6 foot wide. It was 5'10" wide!!!!! Geeeeezzzzzzz!

1¼" is nothing to stretch out, if you have the right tool. A knee kicker, ain't going to cut the mustard!!!!!

Man, if that dude lets go with some one standin' on it, they'll get hurt. I don't understand whey they don't just leave the selvage on all of them. Seems like it'd save them a step and would sure cause us fewer problems.

I have always wondered about that too.
That would have been a very good question to ask, when I did some mill tours years ago in Dalton. Dang, then I would know. I never saw where they cut it off???

Some smaller high end private mills, do leave the selvage on their cut piles. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen it still on.

Really surprizing, when you have your mind made up your dealing with a loop pile, and open the row, and see a nice cut pile.