Dear James: Several floors are pretty worn from the kids. I'm thinking of installing foam-backed carpeting. Can I can do it myself? Should I repair the old floors first before installing it? — Dawn C.
Dear Dawn: Foam-backed carpeting should be as durable as professionally installed carpeting with separate padding. It should easily handle the wear and tear from children. When foam-backed carpeting is installed properly, it is beautiful and indistinguishable from professionally installed carpeting.
Foam-backed carpeting can be laid over most surfaces. If there are any deep gouges or cracks in the floor, they must be filled with some type of putty and sanded smooth with medium grit sandpaper. All the wax must be cleaned from the surface so the carpeting adhesive or tape will stick well. Any loose tiles must be glued down tightly to the subflooring first.
When placing foam-backed carpeting over concrete, as in a basement or over a slab, you must first check to be sure no moisture comes through it. To test the concrete for dryness, put a ribbon of putty around the edge of a drinking glass. Place it upside down on the concrete. If, after two days, there is no condensation inside the glass, you should not have a problem.
As with most do-it-yourself projects, planning is the key to a successful and attractive conclusion. Take a piece of graph paper and lay out the room precisely to scale with all of the door openings and other obstacles that the carpeting will have to be positioned around.
Take this layout to the carpeting shop so the salesperson can determine how much carpeting you will need to buy. Make sure to indicate the primary traffic patterns in the room and where the furniture will be located.
Foam-backed carpeting is typically available in 6-foot-wide and 12-foot-wide rolls. If your room is larger than 12 feet in either direction, the carpeting will have to be seamed. This is not a difficult job, but it must be done with care so the seams are not noticeable.
Here are some tips for locating the seams. Try to locate them in low traffic areas so they take less abuse and avoid primary visual areas in the rooms. Locating the seams underneath furniture is ideal to hide and protect them. If light comes in from a window or a bright light, run the seam parallel to the light rays. If the seam is perpendicular, it is much more apparent.
Snap chalk lines on the floor at the locations of the seams as shown on your scale layout drawing. Turn the carpeting over and mark the locations of the cut lines. You should plan to leave about 2 inches of overlap at the walls and 1/4 inch at the seams.
If the carpeting has a repeating pattern that you need to match at the seams, take this into consideration before doing any cutting. Also, the pile on carpeting naturally lays over slightly in one direction. You should also match this pile direction.
Once all the pieces are cut to size and everything seems to fit well, start to glue it down per the manufacturer's instructions.
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