I just had new carpet installed in my bedroom. The bedroom has a sliding door on a track for the bedroom closet. The carpet installer forgot to reinstall the bottom track for this door when he was done, so now it’s up to me. The track was attached to the floor with screws.
Having tried to drive a screw through a carpet once before, I know doing this will almost inevitably start a ravel in the carpet fabric. So I’m looking for some Heloise-type advice on how to screw through carpet without ruining my nice new carpet. There must be some simple solution that I’m missing, right?
I Googled the subject and came up with a goose-egg. I guess that either means it’s impossible, or the solution is so obvious only I would be stupid enough to need assistance…
Two methods-one is to take a large awl and drive into the hole first, then slowly drive the screw in by hand, and the second would be to mark the carpet at the fastener location with a sharpie or equivalent, then take a utility knife with a new blade and make a small cut through the carpet fibers at the fastener location, which reduces the chance of a mouse.
Years ago-one of my technicians was installing a vault door doorstop as one of the final tasks before touch-up cleaning-this is the day before the grand opening. He had to drill into the concrete slab through the carpet to set the anchors. Since he was fairly new, I moseyed over and said-I know you know this, but just a reminder to X-cut at the fastener locations so you don’t make a mouse. Yeah, yeah-I know all about that. You guessed it-I’m making chat with the bank manager and president and a mouse ran by. :eek: I normally don’t like killing subordinates, but that was an exceptional case.
If it’s nylon carpet try burning a (small) hole with a soldering iron. Cement floors with anchors? Not sure, but if the carpet is hidden (like under a threshold) cutting a small square hole in the carpet might work. I’ve found that the X method dosen’t work well because the threads still catch.
Wood floors of course use nails through the carpet instead of screws.
As an aside, if you’re painting and a small drip of paint gets on the carpet, don’t wipe it. Let it dry and use fingernail clippers to cut out the spot. This works well and you’ll never notice.
You know, it must have something to do with how old I am, or how long it’s been since I had sex, but that didn’t even occur to me when I saw the title.
Waaaaaaay back in my teenage years, I worked for a contractor. We ran across a similar problem 20-something years ago, and his solution was to poke a hole in the carpet, apply epoxy over and around the hole, and then screw the track down with the epoxy eventually curing to “seal” the hole in the carpet.
I have not been back to that house, so I don’t know if the epoxy worked.
He wouldn’t entertain my idea of melting the fibers around the hole.
If you’ve ever witnessed someone power driving a fastener through carpet when a fiber is caught, a little gray runner rips across the carpet, moving as would a mouse.
I’d like to add that after making a hole with a large awl, you could push a plastic screw anchor into the hole and then drive the screw into the anchor. Simple and nothing should unravel.
I’ve tried cutting an X in the carpet before and still got a ravel started. I like the idea of burning the fibers, though. Sort of like cauterizing a wound, eh? I’m going to give that a try and report back.
I screw through carpet on a fairly regular basis for work. I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve had a problem with it. I usually just go slow. However the above solution is simple and elegant. Adding it to my list.