You have decided to order a new carpet for your home. You have chosen the styles and the colors as well as the type of padding that will best serve your needs. The rooms have been measured and the order has been placed. Now, it?s the big day and the installers are scheduled to arrive shortly. What next? What should you expect to take place on carpet installation day?
The preparation
The salesperson will have gone over with you all of the things you will want to have done before your carpet installation. You will want to have removed breakables from the worksite, and you can also help out by moving small things out of the way and making sure that the installers have a clear pathway into the room or rooms where they will be working.
The arrival
The first thing that our installers will do is introduce themselves and do a walk-through of the living spaces where the carpet flooring is to be installed. This allows them to double-check measurements and survey the area as well.
They will typically walk through their plan with you, so you know what to expect, and if there is any specialized work to be done, they will talk that through with you to ensure that they correctly understand what it is that you wish. Also, they will ask you to walk out to the van with them to make sure that they have the right carpet that you ordered. We pride ourselves on precision in the warehouse as well as on the job site, but it is always wise to double-check orders for accuracy.
The whirlwind
What happens next is quite a site! Any furniture that needs to be moved out of the work area is moved into a safe space. Next, the old rug is cut into strips, rolled up, and removed from the house. Next, the padding is removed. While one of the installers is sweeping up any dust and making sure that the tack strip is intact, the other will be gathering the padding.
If your subfloor is plywood, the new padding will be stapled to the floor and tape will be run over the seams of the pad to prevent any curling when carpet flooring is slid around on top. If your subfloor is concrete, an adhesive will be used to glue the edges of the padding to the floor. This not only keeps the pad from moving around during the installation, but also from shrinking away from the tack strip. If you are installing wall-to-wall carpet over a hardwood floor and you would rather not have staples hold the padding down, the installers can tape the padding to the tack strip if you request it.
Carpet
When the padding is in place and the scraps are cleaned up, our installers will start rolling out the new rug. Carpet flooring is manufactured on a large loom, so the fibers lay in a particular direction. If directions do not match, seams will stand out like a sore thumb. Thus, you will notice that our installers always roll out the material in the same direction.
Seams
One of the most critical aspects of carpet installation is the preparation and making of seams. Here, two pieces of flooring will be hot-glued together with an iron and glue that is on a paper-tape. Seams should be at least 18? away from the walls and should be out of heavy-traffic areas as much as possible. A clean edge is also necessary for a good seam, thus our installers will typically find a row in the material, separate the tufts, and use a special cutter to run the row, giving a clean edge to use when seaming.
Then, slowly and patiently, the iron will be used to heat the glue on the tape and the installer will move from one end of the seam to the other. They say that there is no such thing as an ?invisible? seam, but when done properly, your seam will only ever be visible to those who know for what to look.
Stretching
Wall-to-wall carpet flooring needs to be stretched in tightly to ensure the longest lifespan possible for your rug. Depending on the size of the room, this will either be done with a knee-kicker, a power-stretcher, or both. There is an art to all of this and it is an impressive thing to see when our installers are at work.
Wrap up
When the room is fully installed and the edges are trimmed in, our installers will clean up scraps from the area and will sweep excess tufts from the area. Furniture will then be brought back into the room and if they have to do multiple areas, they will move into the next stage of their work. If they are through with the job, they will walk the job through with you once again, this time to ensure that you are satisfied with their work. And, with your blessings, they will move on.
At Marion?s Carpet Warehouse, we take pride not only in our products but also in our installers. They are some of the finest professionals in this part of Oregon. So, if you are thinking about carpet installation for your home and want to ensure that it is done right the first time, visit us. We serve not only the area of Wilsonville, but also Portland, Beaverton, Vancouver, Lake Oswego, and everywhere in between.
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