- 1). Measure the size of the living room in feet before your purchase your carpet.
- 2). Install tackless strips to the floor near the walls of the living room. To do this, trim the strips so that they fit the length of each wall, and place them so that a space equal to 2/3 the thickness of the carpet is available between each strip and its accompanying wall. Nail the strips to the floor. Make sure the pointed pins in each strip face the wall and that the strips meet each other at the corners.
- 3). Cut your underlay pad in strips, and lay the pad strips across the entire living room. Staple the edge of the pad strips near the inside of the tackless strips, placing staples every 5 inches to 6 inches. Make sure all seams between the pad strips are even and that the pad strips do not cover the tackless strips. Cover the pad strip seams with duct tape.
- 4). Cut the carpet so that it fits the size of the room, allowing 4 inches to 6 inches more than than the room's dimensions. After laying the carpet, cut off the excess using a utility knife. Also, if you have to lay the living room carpet using more than one piece because the room is so large, allow the multiple pieces to overlap by 4 inches to 6 inches, and then cut off the excess using a chalk line to make sure the cut is straight.
- 5). Place a strip of adhesive seam tape on the floor under the carpet below the seam, making sure the sticky side faces up. Run a carpet iron down the tape to activate the adhesive, and then bring the carpet pieces together and seal them down to the floor using a rolling pin.
- 6). Hook the carpet in one corner to a tackless strip, and sink the teeth of a knee kicker machine into the carpet about an inch from the wall. Kick the machine's cushioned end, which will stretch the carpet and fasten the carpet to the tackless strip.
- 7). Rent a carpet stretcher to pull the carpet to the opposite wall by first putting the base of it at the corner where you just fastened the carpet. Sink the stretcher's teeth into the carpet about 6 inches from the edge of the opposite wall. Press the lever, and the stretcher will pull the carpet over the opposite wall area's tackless strip.
- 8). Trim excess carpet at each wall using a carpet-trimming knife. Push down the carpet's edges between the walls and tackless strips with a stair tool and hammer. Also, trim the area of the carpet that is in a doorway so that the carpet edge is centered under the closed door, and install a metal strip to hold the carpet.
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