Carpat@Home

A patch is one of the most common types of repairs that we do. We use a carpet patch to solve several types of carpet problems where small to mid-sized portions of wall-to-wall carpet have been damaged. People usually call us to patch their carpet when other methods to restore their carpet won't work.

Common causes of carpet damage that require this type of carpet repair include carpet burns, carpet stains, carpet tears, carpet holes, pet damage (Bad Kitty!), and remodeling as well as worn traffic paths.

We remove the damaged area, and replace it with an identical piece of carpet. When done correctly, it's normally, but not always invisible to the eye. Depending on the type of carpet you may be able to see the patch, but it will almost always look far better than what we started with.

Reasons why your carpet patch may not look as good as you'd like

• The patch is a different color due to the original carpet fading.

• The patch is new and the area where it's going is old and worn.

• The patch has a gap or overlap in the seam.

• The carpet is running the wrong direction.

Start with the essentials: carpet anatomy

The greater the damage, the more complicated the repair, so it helps to understand what exactly your carpet is made of so you can assess how far the damage has gone.

Every carpet has several layers below what we can see with the eye. That top layer, which comes in various colors, weaves, heights, materials, and densities, (and which is the fun part to pick out when you go carpet shopping) is called the pile. The pile is made from many different materials: nylon is the most common encountered in both commercial and residential carpet repair, because it is relatively stain- and heat-resistant and doesn't crush easily.

Most people are familiar with the fact that padding lies below the carpet, which helps give it its comfortable feel when you walk on it. This is the bottom layer. Common types of padding include foam (cheap), rebond, frothed foam, slab rubber, waffle rubber, fiber (such as jute, recycled textiles, synthetic fibers, etc.), and in some cases special Berber padding.

Between the pile and the padding is the backing, which is made of two layers and holds the fibers together so the carpet doesn't fall apart. When the carpet is manufactured, needles are used to push the fiber through the primary backing. It's then sealed against the secondary backing with very strong adhesive to keep everything in place.

Once you're familiar with how your carpet is constructed, it's easier to envision how patching works, even if you've never done it before. These are the basics of your carpet's anatomy, and should help you in assessing how far down the damage has gone, which is an important step in carpet repair and carpet patching.

#1 Carpet Patching Requirement: Carpet Patches!

Just as important as removing the damaged carpet is replacing it with well-matched good carpet. There's a few different ways to find a fresh carpet patch:

· In ideal situations, the new carpet patches come from spare scraps left over from the original installation. Always save the scraps!

· If you don't have any leftover carpet from the installation we may be able to steal some carpet from a closet, beneath a radiator or from under a piece of furniture that you never move. (Now you'll never move it for sure.)

· If your carpet is a relatively common style, a nearby retailer may have a perfect or near-perfect match that you can purchase. (The chances of finding a perfect match are somewhere between slim and none.)

· If you need to patch a significant area that matches the rest of the house (such as several steps in a stairway or a hallway, one great carpet patching alternative is to re-appropriate matching carpet from another room, such as a bedroom. Re-carpeting just that one bedroom means the hallway/stairway still matches the rest of the house, and costs a LOT less money than replacing the carpet for whole common area.

Basic Steps of Carpet Patching for the novice.

1. Removing the damaged carpet: Start by using a straight edge and a row finder. An ice pick or a Phillips screwdriver can be used instead of a row finder. Place the straight edge on the carpet with the groove side down. Use the row finder to separate the nap. Do this by dragging the point of the row finder across the carpet up and down and against the edge of the straight edge.

2. Use a slotted blade knife with a fresh blade. You can use a slotted blade knife (butted up against the straight edge to cut through the carpet without cutting through too much of the nap if you used the row finder properly. The more nap you cut off, the worse the carpet patch will look.

3. Choose a scrap of carpet that's leftover from the original installation for the carpet patch. If you don't have any leftover scraps of carpet then you'll need to remove a piece from a closet or from under a piece of furniture. Some people try to find a piece of matching carpet at a carpet store but it's nearly impossible. On occasion we will have the customer buy some carpet from a carpet store that is very close to matching. We then take carpet from a closet to do the patch with and use the new carpet in the closet.

4. Determine the direction of the nap. Carpet lays down more when you brush your hand in one direction than in other directions. It's incredibly important for proper carpet patching that all the carpet runs the same direction. Sometimes it's really hard to tell which way the carpet nap runs. All I can say is to keep brushing your hand in different directions until you really get to know the carpet. If you keep at it, you'll figure it out.

5. Turn the carpet patch over and use the straight edge to cut a perfect patch from the back. If you are untrained, chances are that you won't be able to cut a perfect patch. (Tip, use a fresh blade in the slotted blade carpet knife) Here at Creative Carpet Repair we're carpet repair experts, we do this all the time so it's easy for us. If the patch isn't cut exactly perfect you'll see the carpet patch.

6. Now that the carpet patch is cut exactly perfect without any gaps or overlaps at the seams it's time to seal the edges. You can seal the edges with latex or with a glue gun. Just use the slightest amount of glue along both edges so that there won't be fraying in the future. Not everyone seals the edges but it is highly recommended.

7. The carpet patch is cut to perfection, the edges are sealed and now you're ready to adhere the carpet patch to the rest of the carpet. The way we do it is to use a special carpet seam tape with an iron or with a hot glue gun. For the beginner I'd recommend using the glue gun.

Cut the seam tape to the size of the carpet patch. Line up the carpet seam tape so that half of it is under the existing carpet and the other half of it will be under the patch.

Use the glue gun to apply a generous amount of hot glue under the seam of the carpet. Slowly work your way all the way around the carpet until you have glued the carpet patch into place. (hint, have a glass of water right next to you for when you get molten hot glue on your fingers. A quick dip will cool it off right away and prevent you from experiencing nearly as much pain.)

When gluing the carpet patch down using the glue gun, pay special attention to the backing. You want to glue the backing down so that it's butted up just right. Also be especially careful to avoid getting the nap of the carpet pushed down into the hot glue. It's a mess when that happens and there's no recovery.

As you glue the carpet together, push the carpet backing down into the hot glue using a carpet tractor. It's a good idea to put a flat weight on top of the seam for a few minutes as you work your way around.

If you're a novice, I wouldn't recommend that you try to use the carpet seam iron to patch a carpet. It takes a skill that doesn't come on the first try. You can get a better idea by watching the free videos that you can find on the main website.

Carpet Repair: An Introduction

Let's start with the basics: It is possible to do your own repair. If you would rather repair than spend hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars replacing then a carpet repair may be for you.

Although the average homeowner may be able to repair their carpet themselves, it's not necessarily the best choice.

A professional can help you in a small fraction of the time it would take an untrained person, all while making a hard job look easy.

If you are a homeowner and want to try to fix it yourself, I caution you that if quality really matters, then hire a pro.

For now I'll just skim the surface and describe the most common types of repairs. Later, I'll go in depth and explain in more detail about each type.

Here are some different types of carpet repair:

• Stretching

• Patching

• Transitions

• Berber

• Seam Repair

• Pet Damaged (Including Removing Pet Urine)

• Repairing Flood Damage

• Reinstalling After Remodeling

• Removing

• Repair Stairs

• Stain Removal

When an original installation is done properly, you should never need to re-stretch loose carpet. Proper installation requires a tool called a stretcher or a power stretcher. (Not a kicker, kickers aren't nearly enough.) When you see ripples, wrinkles, or bunched-up carpet, that's when you know you need to have it stretched.

Most of the time, a loose carpet can be re-stretched without needing to take apart seams. If seams do need to be taken apart, it opens up a whole other can of worms.

If there's some furniture in the room, we can often use our carpet stretcher without having to clear the room entirely. Often we can move the furniture from one side of the room to the other and stretch one side of the room at a time.

If you have a stain that you can't get out or you have damaged carpet due to a burn (not the good kind), or your bad dog or cat thinks that carpet is a food group, then a patch may be the only solution.

Patching isn't as easy as it looks. The patch needs to be exactly perfect. If there's any overlap or gap at the seam (at all), you'll be sorry.

You can use a leftover piece of carpet from the original installation or steal a piece of carpet from a closet to do your carpet patching. One thing you probably can't do is go to the carpet store and buy a piece to match.

A carpet to floor transition is anyplace where the carpet ends and the floor begins. If it's at a tile floor we call it a carpet to tile transition.

Many people install their own tile but don't know how to finish the job with the carpet to tile transition. Often professional tile installers don't know how to finish their job with a proper carpet to tile transition. There are several good ways to do a carpet to floor transition that I will explain in the carpet to tile transition article.

When people refer to a Berber carpet, they're referring to a looped carpet with rows. It's not really a Berber carpet but for our purposes here it's okay to call it Berber. For an interesting read on the history of Berber carpet click here.

Berber carpet repair is often needed due to a snag in a Berber carpet or a pull in a Berber carpet. A pull in a Berber carpet happens when one or more threads get caught, either in a vacuum or some other way. Often times it's the family pet or a child that pulls Berber carpet and creates the snag or run.

If there is just one Berber carpet row that has been pulled, it can be re-burled (glued back into place). If the Berber carpet run is more serious, say for example a dog was trapped in a room and tried to dig her way out, then a patch is in order.
If your Berber carpet is loose then it will need to be stretched. Stretching Berber carpet isn't really any different than stretching carpet of any other type.

If a carpet comes apart at the seam it can be repaired in several different ways. One way is to glue it back together, another way would be to remove the old seam tape and do the entire seam over. If the seam that came apart is on a Berber carpet then it becomes a bit more challenging.

A seam needs to withstand a lot of use, and do so for many years. This is one place where it really makes sense to use the best products available. One thing you definitely should not use is the cheap two-sided carpet tape that some web sites sell. It won't last.

Repairing carpet that's been damaged by a dog or a cat may be as simple as using a solution to remove the stain and odor. Or it may require much more, such as removing carpet and replacing it with a patch, or even going deeper by removing and replacing the carpet padding and cleaning and deodorizing the floor below the carpet, the tack strip, and even the baseboard.

When a room becomes flooded, most often we will remove the padding, dry out the carpet and then replace the padding with new carpet pad. In most cases the tack strip does not need to be replaced. A flood damaged carpet can mildew quite quickly so it's important to take quick action.

Removing, replacing, or installing new built-in furniture, walls, floor heaters, toilets, cabinets, and other fixtures are just a few reasons that a carpet installer will need install the carpet properly into the room. This will require some new tack strip and possibly some new carpet and pad to add to the area. Many times the customer will have some carpet left over from the installation. If not, we can often take carpet from the closet.

Removing carpet and carpet pad is simple but sometimes strenuous. If we are trying to save the carpet to use in a different room or to re-carpet the hallway or stairway, we will want to try to keep it in one piece. If the objective is just to remove old carpet and old carpet pad, we will make it easy on ourselves by cutting the carpet into strips approximately two feet wide.

Sometimes we charge to haul the carpet and pad away but most often we leave it in garbage bags for the customer to feed into their garbage can over a period of a few weeks (no charge).

The first stair always wears out first. One way to save a LOT of money is to use a scrap of leftover carpet from the installation or from a closet to replace just a stair or two.

If more stairs need to be re-carpeted, and if the stairway carpet matches the carpet in the hall and the rest of the house, you can save a LOT of money by replacing the stairway carpet with carpet removed from a different room. It's far less expensive to replace just one room of carpet than to re-carpet your entire house, and the stairway carpet continues to match the carpet in the hall and the rest of the house.

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of products that you can use to remove stains from your carpet. If you want some great tips on how to remove carpet stains click here.

In conclusion

The preceding information only scratches the surface of what's possible with carpet repair. In the future we do plan on writing additional articles describing in further detail every category that was listed.

We here at Creative Carpet Repair hope this helps you in your quest to learn about how to repair carpet and we are available during normal business hours to answer any question you may have. Good luck!

A patch is one of the most common types of repairs that we do. We use a carpet patch to solve several types of carpet problems where small to mid-sized portions of wall-to-wall carpet have been damaged. People usually call us to patch their carpet when other methods to restore their carpet won't work.

Common causes of carpet damage that require this type of carpet repair include carpet burns, carpet stains, carpet tears, carpet holes, pet damage (Bad Kitty!), and remodeling as well as worn traffic paths.

We remove the damaged area, and replace it with an identical piece of carpet. When done correctly, it's normally, but not always invisible to the eye. Depending on the type of carpet you may be able to see the patch, but it will almost always look far better than what we started with.

Reasons why your carpet patch may not look as good as you'd like

• The patch is a different color due to the original carpet fading.

• The patch is new and the area where it's going is old and worn.

• The patch has a gap or overlap in the seam.

• The carpet is running the wrong direction.

Start with the essentials: carpet anatomy

The greater the damage, the more complicated the repair, so it helps to understand what exactly your carpet is made of so you can assess how far the damage has gone.

Every carpet has several layers below what we can see with the eye. That top layer, which comes in various colors, weaves, heights, materials, and densities, (and which is the fun part to pick out when you go carpet shopping) is called the pile. The pile is made from many different materials: nylon is the most common encountered in both commercial and residential carpet repair, because it is relatively stain- and heat-resistant and doesn't crush easily.

Most people are familiar with the fact that padding lies below the carpet, which helps give it its comfortable feel when you walk on it. This is the bottom layer. Common types of padding include foam (cheap), rebond, frothed foam, slab rubber, waffle rubber, fiber (such as jute, recycled textiles, synthetic fibers, etc.), and in some cases special Berber padding.

Between the pile and the padding is the backing, which is made of two layers and holds the fibers together so the carpet doesn't fall apart. When the carpet is manufactured, needles are used to push the fiber through the primary backing. It's then sealed against the secondary backing with very strong adhesive to keep everything in place.

Once you're familiar with how your carpet is constructed, it's easier to envision how patching works, even if you've never done it before. These are the basics of your carpet's anatomy, and should help you in assessing how far down the damage has gone, which is an important step in carpet repair and carpet patching.

#1 Carpet Patching Requirement: Carpet Patches!

Just as important as removing the damaged carpet is replacing it with well-matched good carpet. There's a few different ways to find a fresh carpet patch:

· In ideal situations, the new carpet patches come from spare scraps left over from the original installation. Always save the scraps!

· If you don't have any leftover carpet from the installation we may be able to steal some carpet from a closet, beneath a radiator or from under a piece of furniture that you never move. (Now you'll never move it for sure.)

· If your carpet is a relatively common style, a nearby retailer may have a perfect or near-perfect match that you can purchase. (The chances of finding a perfect match are somewhere between slim and none.)

· If you need to patch a significant area that matches the rest of the house (such as several steps in a stairway or a hallway, one great carpet patching alternative is to re-appropriate matching carpet from another room, such as a bedroom. Re-carpeting just that one bedroom means the hallway/stairway still matches the rest of the house, and costs a LOT less money than replacing the carpet for whole common area.

Basic Steps of Carpet Patching for the novice.

1. Removing the damaged carpet: Start by using a straight edge and a row finder. An ice pick or a Phillips screwdriver can be used instead of a row finder. Place the straight edge on the carpet with the groove side down. Use the row finder to separate the nap. Do this by dragging the point of the row finder across the carpet up and down and against the edge of the straight edge.

2. Use a slotted blade knife with a fresh blade. You can use a slotted blade knife (butted up against the straight edge to cut through the carpet without cutting through too much of the nap if you used the row finder properly. The more nap you cut off, the worse the carpet patch will look.

3. Choose a scrap of carpet that's leftover from the original installation for the carpet patch. If you don't have any leftover scraps of carpet then you'll need to remove a piece from a closet or from under a piece of furniture. Some people try to find a piece of matching carpet at a carpet store but it's nearly impossible. On occasion we will have the customer buy some carpet from a carpet store that is very close to matching. We then take carpet from a closet to do the patch with and use the new carpet in the closet.

4. Determine the direction of the nap. Carpet lays down more when you brush your hand in one direction than in other directions. It's incredibly important for proper carpet patching that all the carpet runs the same direction. Sometimes it's really hard to tell which way the carpet nap runs. All I can say is to keep brushing your hand in different directions until you really get to know the carpet. If you keep at it, you'll figure it out.

5. Turn the carpet patch over and use the straight edge to cut a perfect patch from the back. If you are untrained, chances are that you won't be able to cut a perfect patch. (Tip, use a fresh blade in the slotted blade carpet knife) Here at Creative Carpet Repair we're carpet repair experts, we do this all the time so it's easy for us. If the patch isn't cut exactly perfect you'll see the carpet patch.

6. Now that the carpet patch is cut exactly perfect without any gaps or overlaps at the seams it's time to seal the edges. You can seal the edges with latex or with a glue gun. Just use the slightest amount of glue along both edges so that there won't be fraying in the future. Not everyone seals the edges but it is highly recommended.

7. The carpet patch is cut to perfection, the edges are sealed and now you're ready to adhere the carpet patch to the rest of the carpet. The way we do it is to use a special carpet seam tape with an iron or with a hot glue gun. For the beginner I'd recommend using the glue gun.

Cut the seam tape to the size of the carpet patch. Line up the carpet seam tape so that half of it is under the existing carpet and the other half of it will be under the patch.

Use the glue gun to apply a generous amount of hot glue under the seam of the carpet. Slowly work your way all the way around the carpet until you have glued the carpet patch into place. (hint, have a glass of water right next to you for when you get molten hot glue on your fingers. A quick dip will cool it off right away and prevent you from experiencing nearly as much pain.)

When gluing the carpet patch down using the glue gun, pay special attention to the backing. You want to glue the backing down so that it's butted up just right. Also be especially careful to avoid getting the nap of the carpet pushed down into the hot glue. It's a mess when that happens and there's no recovery.

As you glue the carpet together, push the carpet backing down into the hot glue using a carpet tractor. It's a good idea to put a flat weight on top of the seam for a few minutes as you work your way around.

If you're a novice, I wouldn't recommend that you try to use the carpet seam iron to patch a carpet. It takes a skill that doesn't come on the first try. You can get a better idea by watching the free videos that you can find on the main website.