Here’s How a Standard Carpet Installation Works

Carpet installation isn’t difficult, but there may be circumstances where you want the assistance of a Fowles professional. There are basically three types of carpet installation: direct glue-down, double glue-down and stretch-in. Stretch in installation involves tacking the carpet near the walls, then stretching the carpet, either by hand or by machine, and finally tacking it down near the opposite wall.

Carpet Fitter
Carpet Fitter

What type is best?

Stretch-in is usually done with a separate carpet backing, while glue-down puts an adhesive under the carpet to hold it in place. For obvious reasons, glue-down methods don’t use carpet backing unless it’s attached to the carpet. When there’s no backing, the adhesive is bound to the carpet itself. Stretch-in carpets are easier to replace, but they are not appropriate for ramps, high traffic areas or stairs.

If you’re planning to install carpet over a concrete floor, especially in a new building, tests need to be done to determine the moisture content of the concrete before choosing a carpet installation method.

Deciding on a carpet

If you are hiring a professional installer, most of your work comes up front in the selection of the carpet. Take a room measurement with you so you can get an estimate on the spot. If you’re in the Melbourne area, we’ll do that for you for free. In many cases, colour and texture will not be the only factors in your decision. You may have noise considerations; springier carpets deaden noise better, and some of the new underlayments have thermal insulation properties that you might want to consider taking advantage of.

If you are carpeting a single room, once the method of installation is decided—taking into consideration the carpet’s characteristics, the ability of the glue to bind to the floor material and other factors—the procedure goes like this:

Here’s the process

First, the furniture has to be removed from the room, but don’t worry, that’s part of our installation service. If there’s an existing carpet, it should be vacuumed before it is removed. Once the old carpet is lifted, the floor should be vacuumed, as well. When you work with Fowles, your old carpet is recycled wherever possible.

Our installers are trained professionals and adhere to the installation techniques set out in Australia/New Zealand Standard. These guidelines contain useful information on the application of adhesives, location of seams (always parallel to the expected flow of traffic), ideal room humidity levels and how to transition to other surfaces. There are also a series of safety precautions, most having to do with off-gassing of noxious substances from carpet and carpet backing. Regardless of whether or not you have ventilated the room during installation, there will be a period of ‘new carpet smell’ that should disappear within 72 hours.

Whether you install the carpet yourself or ask us to do it for you, you’ll get a great deal on a great carpet at Fowles.