Category — Carpet

The dry foam procedure is mostly rather than dry as the name infers, although the content of moisture is so low that it can actually be referred to as dry foam (90% air – 10% liquid).  The dry foam machine is equipped with a pressure tank, which you will pour a solution of water and shampoo into.

A compressor will work to convert the solution into foam which is then dispensed all over the carpet using a revolving cylindrical brush.  The brush will work to comb the foam through the piles of the carpet so that each individual fiber of the carpet is cleaned.

To achieve success, you must make sure that the bubbles being produced are of uniformed size so the foam can complete the cleaning process before it is dispersed.  Once it has dried, the carpet is then thoroughly vacuumed to remove the dried crystals of dirt that have been left behind.

Below, are the steps to the dry foam procedure:
1.  First of all, vacuum the carpet and remove all the stains that you possibly can.
2.  Mix the dry foam solution according to the directions of the manufacturer.
3.  Shampoo the carpet then once it has dried, vacuum the carpet.
4.  Depending on the type of carpet you have, groom the pile to speed the drying process.
5.  Complete the work by using a furniture leg pad or block to eliminate furniture stains or rust.

Advantages
The process of dry foam cleaning is capable of covering a lot of area in a very short amount of time.  There isn’t really any danger involved in saturating the carpet simply because the moisture content is low.  This will also help you to minimize the problems that are commonly associated with over wetting.

Disadvantages
The dry foam method is capable of removing average levels of soil.  There is however a possibility of excessive residue and soil build up if the machine you are using has inadequate extraction capabilities.

Dry foam is the ideal method of choice if you have older carpet if you want to get your carpet as clean as possible.  You can rent a machine at your local department or carpet store if you don’t think you’ll use it enough to buy it.  They don’t cost that much to rent, which is great for those who just want to give it a shot and see what happens.

Dry foam carpet cleaning isn’t that hard to do, as you’ll be fine even if you have no experience with these types of machines.  The above information will help you greatly, and if you follow it, you shouldn’t have any problems.  Dry foam can make a carpet look spectacular, as long as you follow the manufacturers directions on mixing the dry foam solution.  Once you’ve finished cleaning your carpet with dry foam, you’ll probably find yourself falling in love with the results.

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Installing Stair Carpet

When it comes to carpet for your home, you may want carpet that you install yourself.  There are ways that you can carpet a room very cheaply, without having to spend a lot of money.  Carpet can get very expensive in a hurry, which is why saving money is so very important to those on a tight budget.

One very cheap way you can carpet a room is by using carpet samples.  This is actually considered new carpet, as samples aren’t considered to be used.

You can buy samples of carpet for .25 cents a piece at closeout sales or at your local hardware or carpet store.  Depending on the size of the room you are looking to carpet, how many samples you’ll need will vary.  You’ll also need staples as well, which cost around a dollar or so.  Most of the time, you can expect to pay a dollar or so for each square of carpet, which is still considered to be cheap carpet.

Keep in mind that using samples or square is a very unusual style and you have to think about the resale value of your home.  If you have a trailer or mobile  home, then the style is probably going to be unusual and cheap to start with.  If you have an expensive or mid priced home, then you may decide to use cheap carpeting in the basement, playroom, or in a children’s playhouse.

If you are doing a children’s playroom, using multi-colored carpet is perfect.  It is very colorful and if a spill stains one of the squares of carpet, you can quickly and easily pull it back up and install a new one.  This is a great advantage to doing a playroom this way.

Installing your cheap carpet
The only things you’ll actually need when you install carpet samples or squares in a room is a carpet knife and a staple gun.  The 5/8″ staples seem to work the best for squares and samples.

All you need to do is put the carpet peice in place and staple in two or three staples along each side.  Make sure you wiggle the head of the stapler down deep between the fibers, or between the border and the fibers, so you can hide the staples as much as possible.

If you are carpeting a basement floor, you can use carpet tape instead of staples.  With either case, this is best to do when padding isn’t that important.  You can use padding as well if you don’t mind the complications, although without it, its pure simplicity.

You may also choose to lay out your pieces of carpet first, then decide where each individual piece will go.  When you reach walls, heating sources, or other obstacles, you can quickly and easily cut the pieces to fit. If you happen to make a mistake, it will cost you around a dollar, instead of costing you a fortune.  When you make a mistake, all you have to do is start over a new piece of carpet.

Before you begin to put the carpet down, you should always estimate how many pieces you will need, and then call around to find a store that has enough samples for the room.

Although the samples will range in size at different stores, the average is 18 X 18 inches.  If you use pieces that are the same size, you’ll find things to be much easier.  Even though you may be paying a dollar a piece, it rounds out to less than .50 cents per square foot to carpet your room of choice – which is really cheap carpet!

See previous post: Carpet a Stairway

Begin the installation by nailing fastening strips at each riser-tread corner; wear work gloves. Measure the width of the stairway and subtract the part that will be covered by the carpet runner; divide by 2. This is the number of inches at each side of the stairs that won’t be covered. Measure in this distance from one side of the stairway at the base of each riser and the inside of each tread; mark each of these points with chalk or pencil. Then measure in the same way from the other side of the stairs. Measure each stair across from mark to mark to make sure you’ve measured accurately; the carpet runner will be centered on these marks.

Cut the strips to the width of the runner with a small handsaw. On each stair, nail a strip centered on the riser, teeth pointing down, 3/4 inch above the surface of the tread below it; use a 3/4-inch-thick piece of scrap wood to hold the strip in place as you nail it. Nail another strip centered on the tread, teeth pointing in to the riser above it, 5/8 inch out from the riser. You’ll end up with an open V of fastening strips at the back of each stair, straight or wedge shaped, with one strip near the floor at the bottom of the lowest riser and one at the back of the top tread. Don’t nail a strip onto the top riser.

After nailing the fastening strips, measure and mark the carpet padding. Measure the padding to the width of the carpet runner, less about ¼ inch so that it will be very slightly recessed under the carpet edge at each side. With a heavy scissors, cut a strip of padding to fit over each stair tread, long enough to wrap from the tread fastening strip around the tread and down about 2 or 3 inches onto the tread below it. Make a paper pattern to cut the padding for each wedge-shaped step; the padding must cover the tread, round the edge, and wrap over onto the riser below it.

Install the padding with staples. Center a trimmed piece of padding, waffle-patterned side up, on each tread, with its end butted against the fastening strip at the back of the tread. Staple the end of the padding to the tread, using a staple gun to set staples diagonally every 2 inches along the fastening strip. Stretch the other end of the padding out over the tread and down onto the riser below it; holding it evenly stretched, staple it into place. Use the paper pattern to cut padding for wedge-shaped stairs, and fasten the padding the same way.

Finally, unroll the carpet runner and drape it over the stairway, with the nap or pile leaning out and down from top to bottom. Winding stairways are treated as straight flights interrupted by wedge-shaped steps; lay the carpeting out over the bottom straight flight and up to the first wedge step. Pull the carpet runner into place from the bottom up, making sure that the nap or pile lies in the right direction (down) and that the carpet is positioned straight over the fastening strips and between the chalked centering marks on the stairs. Even a small skew at the bottom can magnify noticeably by the top of the stairway, so adjust the runner carefully.

Start fastening the carpeting at the bottom of the first riser. Position the end of the runner directly over the bottom fastening strip so that about 3/4 inch of carpet is turned up along the floor. Trim any uneven edges from the end of the runner with a sharp utility knife.

Push the point of an awl into the carpet at one side and use the awl to push the end of the carpet onto the fastening strip, leaving about 3/8 inch of loose carpet below the newly fastened edge. Smooth the carpet firmly into place along the strip, working across with the awl until the entire end has been fastened.

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The most important part of carpet maintenance is removing and disposing of accumulated dry soil.  The removal of dry soil will improve the air quality indoors, extend carpet life, and help to maintain the carpet.  Keeping regular maintenance on your carpet is one thing, although being sure you have the right equipment on the job is another.

The Green Label
For vacuum cleaners, the CRI (Carpet and Rug Institute) has developed a Green Label testing program.  The CRI developed the performance protocol with the goal of protecting indoor quality, keeping all surfaces as clean as possible, and all without putting dust back into the air.

The Green Label program helps to identify vacuum cleaners that meet three different types of criteria:
1.  Removing soil.
2.  Keeping dust out of the air by containing it within the filtration bag and the machine itself.
3.  It doesn’t damage the carpet and helps to keep the appearance looking good.

The tests for determining the certification of a vacuum cleaner were developed by carpet and vacuum experts and reviewed by scientists with experience in maintenance and the quality of indoor air.

Soil removal
The soil removal protocol will require that the vacuum cleaner remove a specified quantity of soil from the test carpet in four passes.

Dust containment
The protocol for dust containment will dictate the total amount of dust particles that are released into the surrounding air by the action of the brush rolls, through the filtration bag, and any leaks that come from the vacuum system.  with this test, the vacuum cleaner can’t release more than 100 micrograms of dust particles per cubic meter of air.

Install Wall-to-Wall Carpeting -1
Install Wall-to-Wall Carpeting -2
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When all the padding has been set into position, trim off the edges overlapping the fastening strips. Use a utility knife with a sharp heavy-duty blade to trim the excess padding; holding the knife at an angle toward you, cut the padding off exactly where it meets the inside edge of the fastening strips. The surface of the padding should be more or less level with the surface of the fastening strips.

Finally, unroll the carpeting over the padding and pull it carefully into position, overlapping the fastening strips all around the room. Slit the folded-up carpeting vertically where it goes around corners, being careful not to cut past the overlap into the main carpet, so that the edges lie flat against both corner walls. Make straight cuts and crosscuts to fit the carpeting around radiators and other obstructions; don’t cut holes in the carpet to accommodate them. Trim carefully around open floor registers, leaving a slight overlap.

Attach the carpeting to the fastening strips with the knee kicker. Starting in a corner, set the head of the kicker flat on the carpet, about an inch from the wall and aimed slightly down and at an angle to the wall. Kneeling on the floor at the corner, hold the handle of the kicker with one hand and lean on the floor with the other. Put all your weight on the knee opposite the arm holding the kicker and move your other knee forward sharply to hit the cushioned end of the kicker. The head of the kicker will stretch the carpeting under it to hook it’ onto the teeth of the fastening strip at the edge of the floor, leaving an untrimmed edge of carpeting still sticking up against the wall. Repeat the kicking process to fasten the carpeting on the opposite wall of the corner.

After kicking the first corner of the room into place, fasten the two adjacent corners the same way, leaving the diagonally opposite corner loose. Then work from your starting corner out along the two walls of the corner, holding the just-fastened carpeting in place with one hand and using the other to kick the next few inches of carpeting. Make sure the carpeting lies flat and doesn’t shift as you work. Fasten the third side of the carpet, working toward the loose corner, and then fasten the fourth side.

Use a utility knife with a sharp heavy-duty blade to trim the edges of the carpeting, and replace the blade as soon as it begins to dull. Cut off the turned-up edge of carpeting evenly, leaving about 3/8 inch still sticking up above the tacked-down edge. Cut carefully, and snip off any ragged tufts of yarn.

To complete the installation, use a stiff putty knife to wedge the trimmed edge of the carpeting down into the ¼  -inch gap between the walls and the fastening strips. Press the cut edge of the carpeting firmly into place all around the room. To finish the edge at doorways, trim the carpet edge carefully to fit under the curved rim of the door finishing strip. Push the raw carpet edge under the rim and use a hammer and a wood block to pound the rim firmly down over the carpet edge.

Finally, replace floor registers-you may have to trim the carpet edge back farther, but cut carefully. Replace quarter-round baseboard molding if you removed it earlier, and rehang the doors. If the new carpeting and padding are much thicker than the old floor covering, you’ll probably have to plane the bottom edge of each door so it can open and close easily. Remove the door from its hinges and plane the bot’ tom edge carefully, planing from both ends toward the center. Rehang the door. Move the furniture back into the room.

Install Wall-to-Wall Carpeting -1

Install Wall-to-Wall Carpeting -2

When all the fastener strips have been nailed into place, take the rolled-up carpeting and pull it into position in the room and unroll it, right over the bare floor. This is so you won’t jerk the padding out of place later by pulling the carpeting across it. Roll the carpeting back from one side toward the center of the room, exposing the floor again.

Unroll a strip of foam padding along the edge of the floor across the bare side of the room from wall to wall, waffle-patterned side up. Cut the strip carefully with heavy scissors, leaving about 2 inches overlapping the fastening strips at each end. Pull the strip to position it over the bare end of the floor so that it overlaps the fastening strips on both ends and along the wall. Then staple it into place, using a staple gun to set staples diagonally every 6 inches or so along all four edges of the padding. Cover the rest of the room the same way, rolling the carpeting back so you can roll the padding into place. Butt the edges of the strips of padding and staple every 6 inches along every edge. Trim the padding as necessary to fit around obstacles, cutting as closely as possible around them.

On concrete floors, use carpet padding adhesive to anchor the foam padding. Position the padding as above and roll it back from one side, then spread adhesive on the exposed floor as directed, using a paintbrush or a fine-toothed notched trowel. Roll the padding out onto the adhesive, pressing and smoothing it into place. To complete the gluing, roll the padding back from the other wall, apply the adhesive, and unroll the padding. Repeat, butting the strips of padding, until the entire floor is padded. Fill in under radiators with small pieces of padding.

Install Wall-to-Wall Carpeting -1

Before installing the carpeting, prepare the floor. Move all furniture out of the room and remove doors that open into the room. Pound in any loose nails and reset squeaky floorboards with flooring nails, using a nail set to drive the heads below the floor surface. Condensation can be a problem when resilient flooring is carpeted; if the floor is covered with resilient tile or sheet flooring, remove the old flooring and then prepare the subfloor.

To complete preparations for the carpet installation, remove floor register covers and, if you want it to cover the carpeting, quarter-round baseboard molding. Fill in any wide cracks in the floor with wood putty, smoothed over with a putty knife, and let the patches dry completely. Vacuum the room thoroughly before you start.

The first step is nailing down the fastening strips. Starting at a corner, nail strips along the edge of the floor, ¼ inch from the wall, with their teeth pointing toward the wall; use a tack hammer to drive the preset nails through the strips and into the floor. Wear work gloves to protect your hands. To make sure the strips are nailed evenly and to maintain the ¼ -inch gap, slide a ¼ -inch-thick piece of scrap wood, on edge, between the strip and the wall as you nail each fastener into place. Work around the room, sliding this guide board along the wall as you nail the fastener strips into place.

To work around corners, cut fastener strips to fit with a small handsaw. Nail strips in front of radiators unless there’s enough clearance under them to admit the knee kicker with room to spare there usually isn’t. Set strips closely around open floor registers. Nail a metal door edging strip across the floor in each doorway, open rim pointing into the room and teeth pointing out. The rim should line up exactly under the edge of the door when both carpet and door are in place.

Installing carpeting takes preparation and care, but it doesn’t take much special skill. Very large rooms require power stretchers, so leave those to the professionals-the rest of the house is yours. Tools: measuring rule, hammer, nail set, screwdriver, putty knife, vacuum cleaner, work gloves, tack hammer, ¼ -inch-thick piece of scrap wood, small handsaw, heavy scissors, staple gun, paintbrush or fine-toothed notched trowel, utility knife with sharp heavy-duty blades; knee kicker, available on rental from most carpet dealers; block of scrap wood, plane. Materials: graph paper, flooring nails, wood putty, tack-less carpet fastening strips, metal door edging strip for each doorway in room, latex or vinyl foam carpet padding, foam padding adhesive, heavy-duty staples, precut and preseamed carpeting. Time: 1 to 2 days, depending on preparation necessary.

Probably the most difficult part of installing carpeting is calculating exactly what to buy and how to place it. Carpeting is sold in 9-foot, 12-foot, and 15-foot widths; padding is sold in standard 4 ½ -foot rolls. Before you buy, measure the room to be carpeted and draw a floor plan on graph paper make sure your measurements are exact. Mark the exact position and width of all doors, windows, fireplaces, radiators, and other wall interruptions, and include the full depth of door frames. Take this floor plan with you to the carpet dealer.

Plan the layout of the carpeting and the padding carefully with the dealer to take advantage of the full width of the carpeting and to minimize seaming in heavy-traffic areas. Calculate the square yardage to be carpeted-length times width, divided by 9-and take the dealer’s advice on the lengths of carpeting and padding you’ll need.

It is possible to cut and seam the carpeting yourself, but this can be tricky. In a small room, no wider than the carpet roll, you won’t have to make seams; otherwise, have the carpet dealer cut and seam the carpeting to fit the room.

The dealer should also determine the amount and type of tackless strip fastener you need. The fastener comes in 4-foot strips. The type depends on the thickness of your carpet and the floor you’re covering; the strips have preset edge tacks and preset nails for installation over wood or concrete. Be sure to buy the right kind, and buy a strip or two extra to allow for mistakes. Have metal door edging strips cut to the exact measure of your doors.

Finally, rent a knee kicker from the carpet dealer. The kicker is used to stretch the edges of the carpet onto the fastening strips.