Install Carpet Without Tack Strips

These will grip the carpet backing and hold it in place.

Install carpet without tack strips.

Next unroll the carpet padding from one side of the room to the other and slice it off with a box cutter. Install tack strips with a gap between the wall. For novice diyers the temptation is to shove the carpet tack strips sometimes called tackless. They are attached to the subfloor around the perimeter of the room to provide the anchor point for the edges of the carpeting to be gripped.

Install the tackless strips along the edges of the area you are carpeting. Tack strips are strips of wood with sharp pointed tacks. Without nailing in tack strips i would glue down in order to prevent wrinkles. In this installation strips of wood called tackless strip are nailed or sometimes glued to the floor around the edges of the room.

Prepare your stairs for carpet installation by installing tack strips thin pieces of wood resembling yardsticks with tacks pointing upward. Another alternative is to carpet each stair individually where the foot lands. A small amount of glue at the top and base of each stair can keep it in place. To install carpet start by nailing the tack strips to the floor using 2 nails for each strip.

I was installing new carpet at our old house and many of the nails on the tack strip came off because the concrete chipped away over the years and it left some dents or holes on the floor. This shows the proper tack strip placement to get long lasting and beautiful results out of your carpet install. Stretch in carpet installation is the most popular installation methods in homes. Keep a space equal to about two thirds the thickness of the carpet between the walls and the tack strips using a scrap piece of carpet as a guide.

Leave a inch between the back of the tack strip and the walls and inch between the back of the tack strip and the entry way of the room where the carpet will stop and a threshold or strip of plastic or metal will be placed. Position the strips with the tack points facing the wall. Padding is secured to the floor in the middle of the room.