5 Golden Rules for Installing Your New Carpet

Once you’ve bought your new carpet, it’s important for Harrisons to ensure that it is fitted and installed as simply, efficiently and speedily as possible, but there is a small amount of preparation required. The main question is whether you wish to remove any existing carpet and clear furniture out of the way to let the carpet-fitters work unimpeded – or whether you pay a small amount for our strong and careful team to do the whole job. Each home and situation is different - so be sure to speak to your local Harrisons business owner for what is right for you.

We spoke to Mathew Barker, Harrisons Carpet franchise owner for Ellerslie/Pakuranga in Auckland, about how to make sure your installation goes as smoothly as possible.

1. We are happy to shift furniture, not “stuff”.

According to Mat, probably 8 out of 10 installations are simple “lift and shift” jobs which means the customer has their previous carpet removed and replaced. To do this, the carpet-layer happily moves larger pieces of furniture out of the way, but prefer the room to be tidy first! Personal effects are the homeowner’s responsibility.

“If a typical bedroom is, say, a bed, two sidetables, a dressing table and a walk-in wardrobe full of clothes – the installers will happily move an unmade bed and sidetables without any clutter,” Mat says. “But all the nick-nacks, bedding and clothes, need to be tucked away prior to coming onsite.”

2. Don’t worry about the big pieces of furniture – we’ve got plenty of experience at making this work!

How we move the larger pieces of furniture around is up to the installers on the day. For example, if there’s a nice ranch-slider on to a patio and the weather’s good, then we’ll keep the furniture out there while the carpet goes down – and if it’s raining or the furniture is too big and cumbersome then we’ll just keep moving it around as we put the carpet down.

“Bunk beds can be difficult, so we ask the homeowner to dismantle them prior to the day of install as they can take quite a long time to take apart, and pianos are scary because of their sheer weight – but the installer will always know the easiest way to deal with furniture left in the rooms,” Mat says. “Plus, they’ll already have a job sheet detailing how many metres of carpet they need, all the areas to be fitted and whether they need to uplift existing carpet and move furniture. And because they’ll have a house plan they’ll have a good idea of what the job entails before they get there.”

3. You don’t actually have to be there to watch.

Mat says in his experience approximately half of his customers decide to be at home during the install (especially if they have pets) and half are more than happy to leave the fitter to it. Some customers are there to let them in at the appointed time, but a large number will also simply arrange for the fitter to pick up a key and then return home once the job is done.

“In some cases, a customer isn’t ready and when they carpet-layer turns up, they haven’t moved their stuff, haven’t stripped beds – in some cases, there are even people still sleeping in their beds! But most are great, understand what’s required and they’ll have some areas ready to go as soon as we get there.”

4. Plan as much as you can in advance by talking to our Harrisons Carpet experts.

If you’ve decided to move your own furniture, make sure it’s kept well out of the way of the installation, or if you’ve decided to let us do the moving for you, make sure drawers, shelves and cupboards are empty and there’s no wires left linking entertainment centres. There’s also an occasional question around having to remove doors – especially if the new carpet and underlay is thicker than the existing pile. Sometimes, some doors may also need a professional to plane them before being refitted and your Harrisons Carpet owner may well have a contractor who can assist with this. Make the most of our free in-home consultation to make sure all your installation questions are answered.

5. Renovators getting rid of existing carpet themselves still have to watch out for a few pitfalls.

Mat says that over the summer months especially, he sees a lot of people renovating and throwing existing carpets into a skip to leave a bare floor for carpet installers. Harrisons Carpet guidelines for this are:

• If your carpet was installed over ‘smooth-edge’ (thin strips of wood laid along the walls with tacks sticking out) then leave the smooth-edge in place as it can be re-used. There will be an additional charge if it needs to be refitted.
  
• If your carpet was nailed or stapled directly to the floor, all the nails/staples must be either removed, or hammered flush with the floor so that new smooth-edge can be installed.
• Underlay should always be replaced as per the manufacturers recommendations.
• Residue foam from rubber backed carpet needs to be scraped off the floor – be aware this is a very dusty process!

Mat says the installer will still check to ensure there isn’t anything left on the floor that would lead to a bumpy carpet.

“If someone says we’ll pull up the carpet, we try to encourage them to pull up all the staples and nails but it’s still going to be the responsibility of the carpet-layer so they’ll generally go over the floor with a scraper to make sure it’s flat.”

If you are considering new flooring it’s worth talking to a Harrisons Carpet expert. We pride ourselves on guiding you through the process from choice of style to final fitting during a free in-home consultation. Call us to book an appointment on 0800 421001, or fill out the booking form online.