 | Patrick Goebel has been involved in the home improvement industry for over 10 years and is currently director of retail flooring of the Flooring & Decorating Division of Star Lumber & Supply Co., Inc. You may contact Patrick by email at pgoebel@starlumber.com or by phone at (316) 942-2221. |
Carpet, Tile & Floor Covering
2004-12-01 09:07:00
The carpet forum - continued
: I have several burn marks on carpet. What is the easy way to repair them?
ANSWER: It would be similar to a pet chewing on a spot in the carpet. Here's how you might do it... 1. Cut out all the damaged fibers. Do not cut the carpet backing. 2. Spread the fibers around the area so that they are leaning away from the damaged area. This allows you to get an accurate pattern of the damaged area. 3. Cut a paper pattern of the damaged area. The pattern should be cut so it can lay on the carpet backing, right up to the fibers surrounding the damaged area. 4. Using the paper pattern, cut a scrap of matching carpeting. This step is where the habit of never throwing out scrap carpeting comes in handy. 5. Check for fit, then install patch in hole with hot glue around edges. 6. Brush fibers back and forth with fingers to make them all stand up straight again. 7. Trim the fibers on the patch with sharp scissors to match height of surrounding area. You will likely still be able to pick out the area because you know where it is at and will have similar characteristics that any seam would have, however, it will look better then a large burn mark on your floor. QUESTION: We are going to be re-carpeting our stairs and hallway. How do we measure the floor so we know how many yards of carpet we need to buy? ANSWER: Will you have it installed or do you plan to do it yourself? If you are having it done, they will usually measure for you and give you an estimate free. If you want a rough idea, break the areas down into squares and multiply the lengths times the widths, and adding each section. This will give you the square feet of the area to be measured. It is also very important to keep in mind that your room is probably not exactly square so it is a good idea to take several measurements of any given length or width and make sure to use the longest. Also, make sure you allow for doorways. Carpet must be laid in the same direction throughout the area and usually comes in 12, 13.6 or 15 foot lengths so it is usually fairly accurate to account for about 5% waste. However, some houses will have more, while others will have less. Divide the total area by 9 to give you square yards. This is not exactly what you will need but this will be close. Most stores now show carpet in square feet which actually saves a step in the calculation. All hard surface flooring has always been sold by the square feet and most people have a hard time relating to yards. Example of a three room measurement: (12x15) + (3x12) + (20x20) = 616sf X 1.05 = 647 = 72 yards or 647 square feet.
