Carpat@Home

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.

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.

Why Carpet Stretching is necessary:

Carpet stretching is, generally, done in two different situations: During the initial installation and for a carpet repair. The initial stretch, during installation, ensures that the carpet is taught, secure, and even across the entire floor covering. Taught carpet will stay in place and stay smooth and flat to the floor where it belongs.

What causes carpets to ripple or buckle:

• Poor installation: The carpet may have been improperly installed. In most cases of a bad installation the installer didn't use a power stretcher properly or at all.
• Excessive wear due to traffic: Sometimes a carpet will need to be re-stretched because of wheelchairs, walkers, tricycles, etc. Even when installed to perfection it can become loose from excessive wear.
• Sliding heavy furniture: Carpet is made of layers of fabric. When heavy furniture slides across the carpet it's likely that it will cause rippling.
• Latex: if the latex holding the backing together deteriorates it's called delamination, the carpet essentially loses its grip on itself, resulting in buckling and loss of fiber.
• Improper padding for carpet type. Certain pile types require specific padding types; if these are paired improperly, the right amount of grip and support may not be present, resulting in carpet buckles. Make sure you consult a trained professional or manufacturer's guide when purchasing carpet so you get the right padding to accompany it.

If your Carpet is Rippling:

(to stretch or not to stretch)

If you have carpet that looks more like the ocean than a flat carpet, you may have a problem. As soon as it begins to loosen up and become rippled, it wears faster. The bigger the ripples, the faster the ripples grow. This is because carpet is designed to lay flat and not move at all. When you walk on carpet ripples it causes the carpet to move up and down, further loosening it.

If your carpet is loose it's time to take action. In most cases, carpet stretching can fix the ripples and buckles, and there's no need to waste money replacing the carpet because of how it lays.

Carpet stretching is a common type of carpet repair that essentially involves pulling the carpet up from around one or more edges of the room, re-stretching it to proper tightness, cutting the carpet to the proper length, tacking back down into place and finally tucking it in along the edge.

Like any type of carpet repair, stretching carpet is more involved than it seems to be. Stretching carpet isn't just a matter of smoothing out ripples and re-securing, or pulling at the edges by hand as you would a bed sheet. Carpet stretching comes with its own tools and techniques that help you do the job right.

Essential Carpet Stretching Tools

A professional who repairs carpet for a living will have all of these tools on hand. If you decide to try and stretch carpet yourself, most or all of these tools should be available for rental or purchase at a relatively reasonable price. Even contracting out your carpet stretching is far more cost-effective than replacing the carpet, so either way, these tools, in your hands or someone else's, save you quite a bit of money.

Partial list

• Knee stretcher. A knee stretcher, also known as a kicker, is a special tool that has a grip on one end, to attach to the carpet, and a pad on the other end, for you to 'kick' with your quadriceps, (do not kick with your knee!)
• Power carpet stretcher. In the trade we usually call this too our stretcher. The stretcher is the most important tool for stretching carpet. It's specially designed to adjust to any size room and help stretch carpet much more effectively than anyone could do by hand (or by knee). A power carpet stretcher features a very long pole with a carpet grip on one end, a wall brace on the other, and a handle lever in the middle. Don't even try to stretch a carpet without one. This is the most expensive tool most of us carpet people have.
• Carpet or slotted blade knife. Involved in almost every carpet repair task you can imagine, a good carpet knife will never let you down. In the case of carpet stretching, the knife is used to trim excess carpet from the edge after it's been pulled tight.
• Staple gun. An industrial carpet staple gun isn't a regular staple gun. The staples are far narrower so that they fit between the nap. Carpet staple guns aren't always necessary for carpet stretching, but it's good to have on hand just to make sure. Because a properly stretched carpet is pretty tight, the tack strip alone may not hold it down satisfactorily, in which case the staple gun eliminates any doubt.
• Stair tool. A chisel like tool used for tucking carpet in after cutting it to the right size.
• Awl. Looks like an ice pick, used to dis-attach carpet from the tack strip
• Hammer.

Carpet Stretching: Do Your Homework First

It's important to keep a few other things in mind when your carpet repair task is to stretch carpet.

Just as carpet manufacturers specify the appropriate padding type for individual carpet types, so they also specify appropriate carpet stretching methods and amounts. What's right for some types may not be appropriate for others. For example, tufted carpet with a jute fiber backing needs to be a bit tighter than tufted fiber with a synthetic fiber backing. And some woven carpets will stretch in one direction but not the other. Consult manufacturer instructions or a carpet repair specialist so you have all the facts before you get started. After all, knowing what you're working with is just as important as knowing what you're doing.

The following is an over-simplified tutorial. If you don't already know what you're doing then you will be better off just hiring a pro. If you decide that you want to tackle stretching your own carpet I suggest that you take your time, use your head, keep your blades sharp, don't try to just kick it tight with a knee kicker and most of all be careful.

Carpet Stretching Technique

The first step is to empty the room of furniture. If you really know what you're doing then you can probably work around some furniture but if you're a novice I suggest that you do yourself a favor and empty the room.

Determine which direction the carpet needs to be pulled. In most cases the carpet only needs to be pulled one direction.

Remove any metal strips that will be in the way. Some flat metal strips need to have nails removed. Another type of metal strip is called a clamp down metal. To free the carpet from the clamp down metal, pry it open (just a little bit) with a flat chisel or a stair tool. There are too many different types of metal strips to describe here so you'll just have to figure it out.

Use an awl to lift the edge of the carpet. Go to a corner of the room and poke the awl right through the carpet about 6" from the wall. From here you will be able to pull the carpet up. If you don't have an awl you can probably use a pair of pliers.

Now it's time to unpack the carpet stretcher. Set it up so that the foot end is up against the baseboard and the head is a few inches from the wall that you are stretching towards. The power stretcher is more than strong enough to rip carpet so be careful to only stretch the carpet just enough to remove the wrinkles (and maybe just a little bit more). Over stretching carpet isn't a good idea because you will create ripples going the other direction. So again, only stretch the carpet as much as you need to in order to remover the ripples.

Use the kicker to make small adjustments.

Start at the center of the room and stretch the carpet at a slight angle towards the corners. Each time you push on the handle of the power stretcher you will pull the carpet.

Cut the carpet from the back using the slotted blade knife. You should cut it so that it is still going to belong enough to tuck into the groove between the tack strip and the wall. If you cut the carpet a little bit too short, you can probably stretch it a little bit more. If you cut it too long to tuck it in properly, then just cut some more.

Before moving on to the next area, push the carpet into the nails that stick out of the tack strip. If the carpet is hard to get it to stick to the tack strip then use the carpet staple gun.

If you use the staple gun, be sure to get the point of the gun down between the nap so that you are only stapling the backing to the tack strip and not stapling the nap down. Continue across the room stretching, cutting, tacking and tucking. Replace any metal transitions and viola!

Adding carpet remnants to your living room can be perfect for preventing your existing carpet from getting damaged. A carpet remnant is considered to be any remaining strip of carpet that is left-over from your carpet-installation process; remnants will vary in size and shape. They are typically cut down to a specific size in order to help fill in a carpet space that is damaged or that is getting replaced. When buying a brand new carpet for your home, chances are good that you saved all of the extra carpeting that was not used. You may have sold it, but most people choose to save their excess carpeting due to the fact that they know that they may need places of their existing carpet to get replaced.

Every once and awhile, people find that their carpeting has stains that they cannot remove no matter how hard they try. They may also find that high-traffic areas of carpeting look flattened and discolored. When you want to fix the appearance of your existing home carpet with a new one, you should first consider replacing the areas that are bothering you the most. One way to target highly-specific areas of your carpet for replacement, is by utilizing carpet remnants. Replacing your existing carpet with carpet-remnants is very easy to do and will look great once you are finished. The reason that you will end up with an excellent-looking carpet after adding carpet-remnants is due to the fact that the carpet remnants are the exact same color, material, and texture as your existing carpet.

For people who did not save their carpet-remnants, but need certain areas of their carpeting to get replaced, there are still ways to get matching replacement remnants. Many carpet-stores and warehouses carry a wide variety of different styles of carpeting that may match your existing carpet perfectly. It is always wise to shop around for matching carpet remnants before you put up the money to buy a completely new carpet and pay for its installation.

Most common colors of carpeting are relatively easy to find selling as carpet-remnants. If you are able to find a matching carpet remnant, you should know that by using it to replace your existing carpet, you will be saving a lot of money. If you need to replace a small room with carpeting, you should consider shopping for carpet remnants as well. Many times you will be able to find carpet-remnants that provide a lot of extra carpet. On occasion, you will be able to replace the entire carpeting of small rooms with just one large carpet remnant.

Even if you do not use carpet remnants to replace your existing carpeting, you should still realize that they may be useful. Some people cut up their carpet-remnants and use them in order to place under the legs of chairs and tables in order to prevent them from making a permanent indentation in your actual carpeting and the carpet pad. You may have also seen people using carpet remnants as a small mat in their kitchen area or to cover up a stained area of carpet.

Most people can find uses for their carpet-remnants throughout their house. For this reason, it is always recommended that you save your carpet remnants when you initially purchase a new carpet. Do not think that you will benefit from getting a very small amount of money for your remnants. After all, your remnants will match the color and texture of your carpeting, they are not meant to be given to someone else. If you save your carpet remnants, you will surely be able to find a good use for them.

If you have a badly damaged section of carpet such as a cigarette burn or bleach spot what are you to do. One option is to replace that area with a patch. Read this article to learn about how to replace a small damaged section of your carpet.

Sometimes the only way to fix a spot in a carpet is to cut it out and replace it. This is true with things like cigarette burns which can burn all the way down to the backing. If you would like to repair this yourself you will need a few things. First you will need a carpet repair tool which is available at most carpet supply stores. It only costs a few dollars and it is a round cutting tool that will allow you to make a precise cut in the carpet. You will also need some adhesive disks and carpet clue.

To begin you will find a donor carpet, usually a hidden section of the carpet or an extra piece of carpet you have handy. Now take your cutting tool and cut out the damaged section. Be careful to not cut through the carpet fibers themselves. Next cut a replacement section from the donor carpet also being careful not to cut the carpet fibers. Next you will peel off the cover on the adhesive disk and place it in the empty hole. Now put some glue around the edge of the hole and insert your patch trying to match the grain of the carpet. (Carpet has a distinct grain). Press the patch firmly into place and put a weight on top of the area. Let it dry at least twenty four hours before putting the carpet to use.

That is all there is to it. Remember that the patch will not be perfect. If you want a perfect job or have a large damaged section you should contact a local carpet cleaner for the repair. Good luck.