Carpet Not Nailed Down

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.

Carpet not nailed down.

Begin at the top of the 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. Grab the cut end of carpet and pull it from the stairs using gloved hands. For wall to wall carpeting carpet tack strips should be installed around the edges of the room leaving a space about the width.

Cut the carpet padding to place on the tack strips. Carpet tacks are strips of wood designed to hold a carpet in place so that you don t have to nail the carpet directly to the floor. Cut to fit carpet installation a cut to fit carpet installation is not a bona fide installation. If you are pulling up carpet from stairs.

The carpet is laid loosely over the floor. An installer will cut the carpet to fit a room exactly but the carpet is not attached to the floor. Carpet tack strips can usually remain in place but look for rust rot or other damage. It is difficult to fix unattractive stairs because they do not lend themselves to painting.

Not suitable for heavy rolling traffic or extensive light duty rolling traffic. Besides most homeowners with nice wooden stairs wouldn t be. If not cut the carpet near the top of the top stair riser. 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.

Carpet works wonders on stairs like this.