I have a couple of apartments that I am recarpeting when the tenants move out. On the first one I had a local company come out and do the work, it cost me $1700, which turned out to itemize $1000 in labor, They were gone by noon. One guy seemed to do all the cutting and stitching, and the second guy was just to help carry and stretch. Sure looked easy. A thou per man day?
But my son thinks I’m nuts. “Leave it to the experts”. But those “experts” were day labor, who undoubtedly just learned in one day watching the head guy do it.
My real concern is that if it were easy I’d have seen somebody do it on one of those home improvement shows by now. They do tile and wood floors but never their own carpeting.
I’ve carpeted a few rooms, and not had much trouble. I’ve only done it with foam-backed carpet, though, which simplifies things (no underlay, no stretching, no tacks – just stick it down with carpet tape). A lot depends on the quality of the carpet, in my experience: some are a lot more cooperative than others, especially when it comes to cutting. Which reminds me of a useful tip: make sure you’ve got a good knife with plenty of replacement blades – cutting carpet blunts them in no time. Also – take your time.
A good DIY book should tell you everything you need to know, and walk you through the whole process.
If it’s carpet tiles, that’s pretty simple. Just don’t overdo the adhesive and make sure you snap lines to get it square before you start.
For wall-to-wall, you’ll probably need a knee-kicker to stretch it with (unless using the stuff mention above), and the afore-mentioned carpet knife with extra blades. Carpet blades are usually curved, BTW.
$1000 in labor for $700 in carpet? Something is seriously wrong with that figure.
No, it’s not something you can do well yourself, assuming regular wall-to-wall broadloom. The labor is normally cheap enough that it’s not worthwhile to even think about. I sold carpet for 2 years, and I easily convinced every one who intended to install it themselves that they shouldn’t bother. The cost of renting a stretcher and knee-kicker alone would wipe out a good portion of the typical “savings.” Besides, it does take a particular set of skills. Not that it’s hard to learn, but you do have to know what you’re doing.
Could you maybe share how that was itemized out? Like I said, if it was regular wall-to-wall, it’s wrong. Unless there is some major complicating factor.
Everything is negotiable. Many carpet stores have specials where they throw in the labor for $99 or something (as did the outfit that carpeted our house). Talk to the sales manager and see what kind of deal you can work out, and don’t take any “10% off” bullshit from him. Make sure he understands you’ll be a repeat customer whenever you roll over tenants.
Not even going to talk about seaming? I was born in the tufted textile (read: carpet) capital of the US, if not the world. Laying carpet is not easy work, especially not doing it well. Until my dying day I will smell the glue from the carpet irons. Those things are evil. Tack strips, knee stretchers, sharp blades, strips of melted glue, ick. I’ve seen it done thousands of times and I wouldn’t try it. Or want to.
You need two people for starters, just to carry the old and new carpet around. If carpet is being replaced, and it’s not ancient, you can probably just reuse the same pad, tack strips, etc.
Some carpets are easy to seam, like any length shag. Cut pile is the worst. Loop pile in the middle.
And I wouldn’t try it at all if the carpet has a pattern or distinct rows of tufts. Very hard to make it square off on all four sides.
Seams are not hard, but make your first ones on scraps to see if you can do it. You will improve rapidly.
If you’ve never sewed before, the main error is in not making all the stitches the same distance from the edges. And the other thing is getting the pile caught in the seam so your seam looks like the part on a haircut.
I didn’t bother to mention seaming because it’s not an issue. Because who the heck would lay carpet themselves? Let alone a job that needs seaming.
No no no. You can NOT reuse the padding.
Pad breaks down over time. It’s porous and collects mold and dust and liquid that’s been spilled and other icky stuff. Part of its job is to support the carpet, and old pad probably won’t do that properly. And it’s cheap. There’s no sense in shelling out all that money for the carpet and then trying to save a few cents on the pad.
The tack strips you can re-use, though. Some sections may have to be replaced, but most or all of it should be usable. If your installer is trying to charge you for a new set of tack strips, then he’s trying to cheat you. (unless there’s a legitimate reason for needing to put down new tack strips)
Two schools of thought here, if you ask me (and you did):
That schlubb did it. So can you. Save the money. The proper tools are easily rented (or since you own apartments, purchased for future use). Not a bad skill to have, either if you own rentals.
You own apartments. You can write off the expense. Might not be worth it to you to “save the money” depending on your financial situation.
Me? I would do it myself. I have felt ripped-off damn near every time I have paid someone to do a job for me that in hindsight I could have done myself. These days, I just tackle the job from the start.
Gatopescado, I agree. And I did end up doing the job myself, in a way.
Green Bean was right, I was reading my bill wrong. It was $1000 for carpet and $700 for labor.
But the labor is a tricky part of the cost because, for instance, Home Depot only charges $199 for labor, but they charge more on the carpet to make up for that (or just to screw do-it yourself-ers?). And they also make you buy new, expenive, pad whether you need it or not. So their total came out a little higher.
But I thought why not just start with one room and see how it goes. The bedroom had the two most pressing problems, a “melt fuse spot” from dropping a steam iron, and a big splash stain from a spilled bottle of nail polish. Neither affected the pad which was only 3 years old.
So, the bedroom only had one small seam where it joined the hall. The closet floor was left intact because it was behind a sliding door frame.
Once the bedroom was done I realized the rest just needed steam cleaning, as the carpet was only 3 years old. I hadn’t cleaned first because I figured the whole apartment was going to be redone to make the colors match. But they were fine. No fading or dye lot problems.
So I should be glad I’d saved a bundle, right?
But I then was able to try something I hadn’t dared earlier - I spread the removed piece on the garage floor and attempted to match and patch the burn and splash. The carpet is a medium length “twist” with a multi-toned random pattern. The plugs were held in with carpet tape, not sewn, and the seams were absolutely invisible.
So now I’m down to semi-glad, because the job could have been done in an hour with patch carpet taken from the closet.
Now at least have a room size remainder piece, and the experience, to do any future patches.
Never leave loose threads. On the scraps removed, snagging a single thread on a tool quickly pulled out a row of tufts. I was lucky not to have done that to the new carpet.
Wear gloves and long sleeves and pants. The rolls look benign like burlap bags, but that backing is very stiff and sharp like rose thorns.
When my SIL had carpet put in ( not using the guy we recommended and had excellent reports from/of and about.) they went with a different guy because he was cheaper.
What they got was the berber carpet pattern half way up the stairs changed direction . They guy ran out of what he needed and improvised.
It took at leat 6 months and a buttload of phone calls to get the same guy to come out ( in his creepy rape van) to fix the six stairs.
Thing is, my husband and I noticed it immediately. His sister and hubby would probably still have wonky carpet up the stairs.
