How to Lay Carpet: A Simple Guide

Installing wall-to-wall carpeting requires careful planning and attention, but it doesn't demand any advanced skills. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to install carpet in any room of your home—from gathering the necessary materials to measuring and prepping, to placing the padding and carpet. Large rooms might need power stretchers, so it’s best to leave that to the experts, but the rest of the installation is up to you.

Required Tools:

Required Materials:

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Getting Ready to Install Carpet

One of the trickiest parts of installing carpet is determining the right amount to purchase and how to position it. Carpeting comes in 9-foot, 12-foot, and 15-foot widths, while padding is available in standard 4 1/2-foot rolls. Before you make a purchase, measure the room and sketch a floor plan on graph paper—ensure your measurements are precise. Mark the location and dimensions of doors, windows, fireplaces, radiators, and any other obstructions along the walls, including the full depth of door frames. Bring this plan with you when you visit the carpet dealer.

Work with the dealer to plan the carpet and padding layout carefully. Aim to make full use of the carpet's width and reduce seams, especially in high-traffic areas. Calculate the square yardage of carpet needed—length times width, divided by 9—and follow the dealer's advice on how much carpet and padding to buy.

Cutting and seaming the carpet yourself is possible but can be challenging. In smaller rooms that are no wider than the carpet roll, seams won’t be necessary. For larger rooms, it’s best to have the carpet dealer cut and seam the carpet to fit the space.

The carpet dealer should also help you determine the type and amount of tackless strip fasteners you’ll need. These fasteners come in 4-foot strips. The choice of fastener depends on the thickness of your carpet and the type of floor it will be installed over. The strips feature preset edge tacks and nails for installation over wood or concrete. Be sure to choose the right type and purchase a few extra strips in case of mistakes. Have metal door edging strips cut to the exact measurements of your doorways.

Lastly, rent a knee kicker from the carpet dealer. This tool is essential for stretching the carpet's edges over the fastening strips.

Before installing the carpet, make sure the floor is ready. Clear the room of all furniture and remove any doors that open into the space. Hammer in any loose nails and secure squeaky floorboards with flooring nails, using a nail set to sink the heads below the surface. If the floor is covered with resilient tile or sheet flooring, remove it and then prepare the subfloor, as condensation can be an issue when carpeting over resilient floors.

Finish getting the floor ready for carpet by removing floor register covers and, if necessary, quarter-round baseboard molding. Patch any large cracks in the floor with wood putty, smoothing it over with a putty knife, and let the patches dry fully. Before starting the installation, vacuum the room thoroughly.

The first step is securing the fastening strips. Start at a corner and nail the strips along the edge of the floor, positioning them 1/4 inch from the wall with the teeth pointing toward the wall. Use a tack hammer to drive the nails through the strips into the floor. Protect your hands with work gloves. To keep the gap consistent, slide a 1/4-inch-thick scrap piece of wood between the strip and the wall as you nail each fastener into place. Move around the room, using the guide board to ensure even spacing while nailing the strips.

When you reach corners, use a small handsaw to trim the fastener strips to size. If you need to install strips near radiators, do so unless there’s enough space underneath to fit the knee kicker—this is usually not the case. Install strips tightly around open floor registers. At each doorway, install a metal door edging strip across the floor, with the open edge facing the room and the teeth pointing out. The rim of the strip should align precisely beneath the door when both the carpet and the door are in place.

Now that the floor is prepared, the next step is to move on to placing the padding and carpet, which will be covered on the following page.

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Installing the Carpet

Once all the fastener strips are nailed down, you’re ready to install the carpet. Unroll the rolled-up carpet and position it in the room. Spread it out over the bare floor to avoid disturbing the padding later when you pull the carpet across it. Then, roll the carpet back from one side to the center, exposing the floor again.

Unroll a strip of foam padding along the floor's edge, from wall to wall, with the waffle-patterned side facing up. Use heavy scissors to cut the strip, leaving a 2-inch overlap on each end of the fastening strips. Position the strip so that it covers the bare floor, overlapping the fastening strips and the wall. Secure it with a staple gun, placing staples diagonally every 6 inches along all four edges of the padding.

Continue covering the floor by rolling the carpet back and positioning the padding, butting the edges of each strip together. Staple every 6 inches along the edges of each strip. Trim the padding as necessary to fit around obstacles, cutting as closely as possible.

For concrete floors, use carpet padding adhesive to secure the foam padding. Roll out the padding as described and apply adhesive to the exposed floor using a paintbrush or fine-toothed notched trowel. Press and smooth the padding into place, then roll it back from the other side, applying adhesive and repeating the process. Continue butting the strips until the entire floor is covered. Use smaller padding pieces to fill in areas under radiators.

Once all the padding is in place, trim any excess padding that overlaps the fastening strips. Use a utility knife with a sharp, heavy-duty blade, holding the knife at an angle toward you, to trim the padding exactly where it meets the inside edge of the fastening strips. The surface of the padding should be nearly level with the fastening strips.

Finally, unroll the carpet over the padding and carefully pull it into position, ensuring it overlaps the fastening strips along the entire room. Slit the folded carpet vertically around corners, being careful not to cut into the main carpet. Make straight and cross cuts to fit around radiators and other obstructions; avoid cutting holes. Trim around open floor registers with a slight overlap.

Secure the carpet onto the fastening strips with the knee kicker. Begin in a corner, positioning the kicker's head flat on the carpet, about an inch from the wall, angled slightly downward toward the wall. Kneel at the corner, grip the kicker’s handle with one hand, and place the other hand on the floor. Shift your weight onto the knee opposite the arm holding the kicker, then move the other knee forward to strike the cushioned end of the kicker. This action will stretch the carpet under the kicker's head, hooking it onto the fastening strip’s teeth along the floor, leaving the carpet edge still raised against the wall. Repeat this process on the opposite wall of the corner to fasten the carpet.

After securing the first corner, fasten the two adjacent corners in the same manner, leaving the diagonally opposite corner loose. Work outward from the starting corner along the two walls, holding the already fastened carpet with one hand while using the other hand to kick the next few inches into place. Ensure the carpet stays flat and doesn’t shift as you proceed. Continue fastening along the third side toward the loose corner and finally, secure the fourth side.

Trim the carpet edges using a utility knife with a sharp, heavy-duty blade, replacing the blade as soon as it dulls. Cut the raised edge evenly, leaving approximately 3/8 inch of carpet still protruding above the tacked-down edge. Make precise cuts, and remove any ragged tufts of yarn.

To finish, use a stiff putty knife to press the trimmed carpet edge into the 1/4-inch gap between the walls and the fastening strips. Firmly press the carpet edge into place around the room. At doorways, trim the carpet edge to fit underneath the door finishing strip’s curved rim. Tuck the raw edge under the rim and use a hammer and wood block to press the rim down over the carpet edge.

Finally, replace the floor registers, possibly trimming the carpet edge further if needed, but take care with the cuts. Reinstall the quarter-round baseboard molding if removed earlier and rehang the doors. If the new carpet and padding are thicker than the previous flooring, you may need to plane the bottom edge of each door for proper clearance. Remove the door, plane both ends toward the center, and then rehang it. Move the furniture back into place and enjoy your newly carpeted room!

For additional resources on carpet installation, refer to the following links: