How to fit a carpet

It doesn’t have to be perfect but the measurements need to be accurate. Just a simple drawing with all the rooms shown is all you need. If you would like some help with how to do home measurements, you can book a virtual consultation with one of our advisors.

If your room is perfectly square or rectangular, the area can be calculated by multiplying the width by the length. For example, a room that is 5m x 2m will need 10m2 of carpet.

If your room includes recesses or chimney breasts, you still need to measure the complete surface area without these as the carpet will be cut around them.

Measure each individual area and write the measurement in the relevant space on the diagram. Then break the room down into smaller rectangles that you can add together to get the total area of the room.

Remember to add 5% extra for waste. This ensures that you have enough carpet when accounting for indentations and scraps.

Measure your lengths more than once to confirm they’re right – just remember to measure the back of any door frames or room trims.

• Always wear knee pads when working on flooring.
• If a lot of your floorboards are damaged, it’s cheaper and easier to pull them all up and start again. Use fit tongue-and-groove chipboard flooring panels which will give you a great base for your final flooring.
• 3mm hardboard sheets are best to level your boarded floor, plus they’ll help to reduce any draughts coming from below. Always make sure the boards have been conditioned beforehand by spraying them with water over the textured side and then stacking them in the room in which they are going to be used back to back. Leave them for at least 48 hours and as they dry they’ll retract back. This reduces the risk of the boards expanding after they’ve been fitted.

• Prepare your boards by ensuring no nails are sticking out above the surface and nailing down any loose boards.
• Make sure you use 19mm nails to lessen the risk of piercing through the floorboard into pipes or cables.
• Space the nails about 150mm apart around the edges, but 225mm apart in the centre. It’s a good idea to start in the centre of one edge and work across the board to the other side.
• Lay the hardboard sheets texture-side up as you’ll need something for any adhesive to stick to. Start in a corner of the room and set the nails about 13mm in from the edges of the sheet in a pyramid pattern. It’s a good idea to use something as a spacer like a piece of wood.
• Push the sheets together and nail the edges where the sheets meet first. When you finish the first row of boards the last one will need to be cut to size.
• Use this off-cut from the last sheet in the first row to start the second row and carry on in the same way. This reduces waste and also helps by ensuring the joints are staggered.

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• For wooden floors use 10mm nails or screws.
• Place the gripper rods 2/3 of the carpet thickness away from the skirting boards with the pins pointing towards the skirting boards.
• Use a hacksaw to cut the gripper to size. Carpet gripper comes with nails or screws already in situ so hammer in the nails or screw in the screws.

• If the floor is concreted, use Gripfill and leave to dry.
• Follow the above instructions but use a bead of Gripfill under the gripper rods. This will help to maintain the integrity of the grippers if the nails work loose over time.

• Lay the underlay loosely in the space, ensuring the rubber side is facing down.
• Using a craft or Stanley knife cut it so that the underlay is at the same level as the grippers.
• Butt the edges together and join them with tape, ensuring that the edges do not overlap and that the underlay is flat and level.

1: Lay your carpet loosely in position. Stand in one corner with a foot underneath the carpet. Use the other foot to smooth the carpet into place, leaving around 50-75mm excess on every edge. If necessary, cut the carpet to size.

2: Cut this excess vertically above the corners and trim the overlapping triangles.

3: Starting from the longest wall and working your way backwards, begin fitting the carpet. Use a carpet tucker to make a firm crease in the carpet along the skirting board. This will give you a fold line.

4: Using a sharp knife, cut along the edge, around 5mm higher than the carpet surface. Hold the carpet flat to the floor while you cut.

5: Take the carpet stretcher and place it around 25mm from the skirting, teeth facing down. Push the padded end firmly with your knee so the carpet hooks onto the gripper on either side of the corner.

6: Using the carpet tucker, push the excess carpet down between the skirting and the gripper. Repeat this process until the first wall is complete, then work along the two adjacent walls and finally the opposite one.

7: To fit carpet around tricky shapes such as door frames, cut down the edge vertically in several places, then trim it so it’s flush. For a pipe, cut straight from the carpet edge to the centre of the pipe then press the carpet around it. Trim it by running the knife round the base at a 45 degrees angle until the carpet lies flat.

8: For fitting carpet across a doorway, cut it so it is in line with the next room’s flooring. You will then need to then fit a door bar (see below) making sure the carpet edge is firmly in place underneath it.

1: Make sure you have the right door bar depending on your flooring types and heights.

2: The correct position for a door bar is centrally across the threshold so it cannot be seen on either side when the door is closed. Once you have positioned your door bar centrally like this, cut the bar to the right length with a hack saw.

3: Check for pipes or cables under the floor by using a pipe and wire detector.

4: For a concrete floor, drill the holes with a power drill using a masonry bit and insert wall plugs. You can then fit your door bar.

5: For a wooden floor, make pilot holes first to ensure you have the right positioning before screwing the door bar to the floor.

Shop our range of door bars and flooring accessories for all floor types and room designs.