Prepare For Carpet Installation
The day you’ve been looking forward to for weeks has finally arrived! Your brand new carpet is here. You greet the installers at the door and welcome them in. Upon entering they take a look at the glass table in the corner of the dining room. They nervously eye the piles and piles of boxes in the den and openly grimace at the sight of the huge entertainment center bolted to the wall which you were told to disassemble. They then hand you a card and tell you to re-schedule the install with their main office. They leave you standing there in the doorway watching sadly as your new carpet drives away.
Before scheduling a carpet install be sure that you know exactly what preparation needs to be done before the installers arrive. Are they moving the furniture? Are there any pieces that they won’t move, or need to be disassembled first? Often times installers won’t touch glass tables. Many installers will request that four post beds be disassembled prior to install.
Have you gone over the seaming diagram prior to installation? Are the seams where you want them? Once they’ve cut the carpet in your driveway it will be difficult to convince them to place a seam elsewhere. Go over their carpet diagrams and be sure that the seams are where you want them.
Will they take away your old carpet and padding? Is it included in the price? If not, how much do they charge to haul it away? Being left with large swaths of carpet on your front lawn without a means to remove them is not a pleasant experience. Odds are your neighbors won’t appreciate it either. This is one question that is frequently overlooked by carpet shoppers.
Be sure to vacuum the old carpet prior to removal. This will remove particles and dust that can be sent airborne during removal if allowed to remain in the carpet. You don’t want to breathe this gunk into your lungs.
Be sure to sweep the sub flooring once the old carpet and pad have been removed. This is also a good time to fix any squeaks or damage to the sub flooring. A noisy wooden sub floor can often be fixed with drywall screws drilled into the problem areas. Have a professional fix the floor prior to install if more than a few screws are needed or if there is significant damage.
Finally, inspect the new carpet prior to install. As we’ve said in other areas of the site, carpet colors can vary slightly between dye lots. Be sure to have a swatch of the color that you’ve selected on hand to match it with. If the delivered carpet is significantly different from the color you’ve selected, refuse the installation and contact the store immediately.
Be sure to follow the pre-installation instructions your installers
have given you. As a company I’ve worked with for years likes to say,
“We’re carpet installers, not movers!” If they arrive at your home to
find rooms filled to the ceiling with boxes (I’ve actually seen this
happen), don’t be surprised when they tell you to re-schedule the
install.