Installing wall-to-wall carpet is a surprisingly difficult task to do yourself, so many people choose to hire contractors for this job. However, if you’re feeling brave and don’t mind investing in some specialized tools (some of which you can rent), then you can take care of it yourself. Here’s a step-by-step guide to installing wall-to-wall carpet.


Step 1: You will need several tools, including a hammer, a stapler, a utility knife, measuring tape, chalk, a seam cutter, tackles strips, a power stretcher, safety glasses, and work gloves.

Step 2: First, remove everything from the room. If there is existing carpet, you’ll need to strip it. Make sure the floor is completely clean and doesn’t have any protrusions such as old nails or staplers.

Step 3: Lay down tackles strips around the edges of the room, leaving gaps for any doorways. It should be about half an inch from the wall, and the tacks should face the wall.

Step 4: Staple the carpet underlay in place. Rather than overlapping the edges, just make sure they are very close together. Cut away any excess that goes over the tackles strips.

Step 5: Take measurements of the room, adding four inches on each side, and purchase your carpet. Cut your carpet to fit the measurements of the room.

Step 6: Bring the carpet into the room and lay it out so that it roughly fits its area. If you’re going to need a second patch of carpet, follow the same process but make the second patch overlap the first by about two inches. To make the two patches join evenly, use a seam cutter to cut through both patches at the same time, and join them with a piece of seaming tape.

Step 7: Hook your carpet to the tackles strips. The best way to do this is to use a knee kicker to force the tackles strip to grab and hold on to the carpet.

Step 8: Use an edge trimmer to cut the carpet along the edges of the wall. Tuck the edge under the baseboard.

Step 9: Use a power carpet stretcher to pull the opposite side of the carpet over its tackles strips, and attach the carpet with your knee kicker. Trim away the extra carpet and tuck the edge of the carpet under the baseboard.

Step 10: For the portion of carpet at the doorway, install a door edge to hold it in place.