DIY Carpet Installation

D.I.Y Carpet Tile Installation

Although installing carpet tiles at home can seem like a daunting task many rooms can be done in a matter of hours all you need is the right tools and a little bit of know how.

With our easy to use guide you will be laying fresh great looking carpet tiles in rooms around your house in no time, before we get started you will need to ensure the floors have been prepped correctly.

Before we begin with the floor prep you will need to ensure you have the correct tools for the job, this will be essential in ensuring the carpets can be laid correctly. 

Tools:

  • A heavy duty utility knife or “Stanley knife” with extra brand new heavy duty blades.
  • A solid scraper, heat gun and / or sanding equipment if you need to remove stubborn old glue.
  • A metal straight edge to cut along (at least) or at best a straight metal edge with a right angle, like a “Try Square” that carpenters use
  • A chalk line for finding and marking the centre of your room. 
  • A marker pen.
  • A wooden surface or dedicated cutting mat to cut and trim down your carpet tiles if needed.
  • Carpet tile glue or tape (if required). 

SURFACE PREPARATION

Now we have all our equipment prepared we are ready to ensure the rooms is prepped for tile laying. 

  • Carpet tiles are very versatile in that they are adaptable and can be laid on almost any hard, clean and smooth surface including:
  • Plywood subfloors
  • Concrete
  • Hardwood floors
  • Ceramic tile
  • Laminate

Whatever the surface you are laying on, all traces of old carpet, carpet gripping, nails or screws, old glue, dirt and grime must be removed completely as well as any holes or debris need to be removed from the area.

Designing your floor

At this stage it is worth considering the design options available to you when laying your tiles. As you will see on the following page, there are several popular methods of laying out your tiles to create different design options. It is worth taking a number of loose tiles, and laying them loose on a section of floor using the various patterns described on the following page. This will help you determine what works best in your situation, and what looks best to your design taste and your individual application for the tiles.

 

Monolithic

The most popular ways of laying carpet tiles are known as: “Monolithic” - This is where all the tiles are laid with the arrows all pointing in the same direction so laying is like building a pathway. 

Quarter Turn

This creates a checkerboard effect. To achieve this, you lay one tile with the arrow pointing forward and you rotate the next tile through 90 degrees.

Brick / Ashlar

This is where tiles are laid with the arrows all pointing the same direction, but tiles are offset by half tile to create a staggered look.

How to begin the stick down process.

It has now come time to find the middle of the room so you can begin laying, The easiest way to do this is to take your chalk line and measure along the length of your walls and mark the centre point of each of the walls.

You will need to measure the centre from each wall as often rooms are not entirely square and can be slightly out. Once you have marked your floor from side you will be left with a cross point lining up to the centre of the room where all four lines meet. It is important that these lines are square as they will be the guide for all your future efforts. 

 

Placing the tiles

Loose lay your tiles. Taking your loose tiles, start at the centre and loose lay then out from the centre and work out the best fit for your room. Determine if you are better laying your tiles along the centre line, or down the middle of the centre line. Lay tiles out from the centre and work out how many to each wall, and determine if you will need to trim tiles to fit to your room. In the example to the left, if we laid the vertical centre row with the tile edge along the centre line, then we would need to cut each tile at the top and bottom in half to fit the room. It is best to take the time now and plan out what looks best for your circumstances before we start to finally install the tiles.

 

Taping down your tile

With tape, the aim is to tape the outside tiles, and plus tape the joins along every third tile. If your tape is double sided, stick one side down to the outside of the room approximately half a tile width away from the wall. Using your chalk guide lines, start at the centre tile and work your way out in a square, lining your first tile to be square against the guide lines and then square off subsequent tiles against this first tile. As you go lay out your tape in the joins planned, and remove both sides, so the tape sticks to the flooring and the underside of your tiles as you lay them.

 

Laying your tiles with glue

Once you have ensured that the floor is still clean and ready to be laid on, use a flat trowel or a roller, and apply the glue to the floor. When doing larger areas, focus on laying one section at a time then move on to the next section. Make sure you keep the area well ventilated while you are gluing tiles. 

 Starting in the centre of the room, do one full row from wall to wall. If the tiles next to the wall need to be cut or trimmed to fit to the wall, leave them out for the moment and we will cut and place those as the last step.

Continue on laying starting alongside that first row and starting in the centre again, placing tiles up to the wall and down the row fit neatly against the row next to them. Continue down the remaining rows, ensuring that each tile seats snugly and squarely against the other surrounding tiles. Please note that you can either follow the above numbering to lay to glue, do quarter of room then move to the next quarter of the room or follow a spiral laying sequence as outlined above in the method of laying using carpet tile tape. Cutting your tiles to walls and obstacles. Where you need to cut your tiles to fit between walls and the remaining tiles, or around obstacles in the room it is best to measure twice cut once. Remember to make sure that you take care to ensure your arrows on the back will all face the correct direction.