After your painter has completed his touchup and the house has been completely punched out, your house is ready for carpet.

Your carpet installer will provide all material for this work. He will provide all pad, tack strip, carpet and other miscellaneous materials.

You should double check the color selection now to ensure that the correct carpet color will be installed.

The carpet installer scrapes and sweeps the floor first. He then installs tack strips and pads. The carpet installer cuts the carpet outside of the home and installs it by stretching it over the tack strip and then trimming the edges. Where joints are necessary, the installer glues the seams and places metal strip where carpet meets other types of flooring. The carpet installer gathers and removes all scraps from house.

Items that you should check:

• Address is posted.
• Confirm the proper carpet selection.
  • Meet the carpet installer and check the selection BEFORE he begins cutting the carpet!
• All floors properly scraped and swept (this work needs to be checked in progress).
  • The installer will use a scraper that is specially designed for removing drywall mud and other construction materials. Any construction residue that is left behind will be very noticeable later, so make sure that the installer is thorough.
• Confirm that all edges are secure and that no frayed ends are visible.
  • Do this by picking up gently on the carpet to feel the resistance of properly installed carpet. Check corners, at cabinets, at doorways and openings, etc. Be careful around transitions to tile, wood or other transitions since the installer depends on tack strip to hold these areas secure. The nails in tack strip are very small concrete nails which are easy to dislodge.
• Metal strip is used where carpet meets and overlaps other types of flooring such as vinyl.
  • The strip is installed and the carpet is stretched over it and then folded under the metal strip. The installer secures the carpet by hammering the metal which holds the carpet edge in place.
  • Some carpet installers will want to use an aluminum ‘clamp down’ type of transition strip. This is generally considered unsightly, but will hide the carpet backing which may be exposed otherwise.
• The carpet installer has not damaged walls or baseboards.
  • Carpet installers are generally careful around your baseboards and walls and a few dings here or there are not uncommon. However, you are the final judge and excessive damage to baseboards which require excessive paint repairs are often charged back to the carpet installer.
• Carpet seams are not noticeable and have been properly glued.
  • Carpet seams are no better than the carpet installers attention to detail at the time. A special tape with hot-melt type glue is placed under the carpet pieces to be seamed. A seaming iron is passed over the tape to melt the glue on the tape. As the iron is moved along, the carpet sections are pressed into the melted glue. Often a weight is place on top of the seam as the glue cools which helps the seaming process. The carpet installer may use special scissors to trim the carpet at the seam so that it will be less noticeable.
• Tacks are hammered down where necessary.
  • Tack Strips have small nails sticking up to hold the carpet that is stretched over them. Occasionally, the tack strips are used in areas that people walk around. In these areas, the carpet installer must hammer the tack strips down to blunt and bend the tacks so that they do not hurt people’s feet.
• There are no lumps under the carpet.
  • This is easy to check. Any lumps are the carpet installer’s responsibility and should be handled immediately.
• All doors have been replaced and the hinge pins knocked down.
  • Carpet installers must remove most of the interior doors in the house as they are installing your carpet. They must re-install the doors before their job is completed. Often, they fail to completely set the hinge pins. Occasionally, they may lose hinge pins. Properly re-installing the doors is the carpet installer’s responsibility and their job is not considered complete until this has been done.
• There is no discoloration in the carpet.
  • Carpet is manufactured in high volume and occasionally die lots are not consistent. In this event, you may notice ‘fading’ from one side of the roll of carpet to the other which is unacceptable. However, do not confuse the slight appearance changes that occur in the carpet’s ‘napp’ that is created when the carpet is rolled and the fibers are forced to lean in one direction. This is normal, however carpet installers must be careful to make the ‘napp’ match throughout each room so that all ‘napp’ is flowing in the same direction.
• Doors do not drag on the carpet.
  • Occasionally, interior doors must be cut off in order for the door to have proper clearance over the carpet. This is considered a punch-out item for your interior trim carpenter. Note that for proper air flow, you should have 1″ to 1-1/2″ of space between the bottom of your interior doors and the carpet.
• All scrap material is removed from the jobsite.
  • Note that your should keep a reasonable amount or usable scraps. It is possible that you may need carpet repairs in the future. It is a good idea to select the larger scraps for future repairs.
  • These may be placed in the attic – in a bag if possible.
• Jobsite is clean.