Comprehensive guide to your carpet installations
Direct glue-down carpet installation
The carpet is glued directly to the floor. The floor needs to be very smooth. Any imperfections in the floor will telegraph through the carpet and be visible. Imperfections in the floor may also cause wear spots.
The advantages of glued-down carpets are:
- The carpet is solidly supported and has minimal movement. It provides a good solid base which is befter for rolling traffic, including wheelchairs.
- Suitable for ramps.
- Low profile. Stores transitioning from carpet to linoleum will find this to be the lowest profile, safest transition.
- Minimize buckling in buildings with climate control turned off for an extreme amount of time.
- Seams do not peak and are more durable due to lack of flexing.
The disadvantages of glued-down carpets are:
- Lack of underlay is less comfortable.
- Lack of underlay means less insulation.
- The carpet is less durable without underlay. Underlay acts like a shock absorber and can significantly increase the life of a carpet.
- When replacement is necessary, removal is more difficult than conventional installations.
- We don’t sell them underlay for this installation.
Conventional Lay Installation
Conventional Lay carpet installation is homes’ most popular installation method. In this installation, strips of wood (called smoothedge) are nailed (or sometimes glued) to the floor around the edges of the room. These strips have hundreds of nails that are angled in towards the wall. The underlay is secured to the floor in the middle of the room. The carpet is then attached to the pins around the room. The installer then stretches the carpet tight across the room.
Advantages of stretch in carpet installation:
- A quick, efficient installation method.
- Underlay is more comfortable.
- The underlay is more insulating.
- The underlay extends the life of the carpet.
- Easier to remove than glued-down carpet.
- The only installation method that allows the installer to effectively work with pafterned carpets, especially when the paftern has minor problems such as bow or skew (which they always do).
Disadvantages are:
- Not suitable for very large spaces due to concerns of buckling or rippling of the carpet.
- Not suitable for heavy rolling traffic or extensive light-duty rolling traffic.
Dual Bond Carpet Installation
Often called double stick installation. This is similar to direct glue-down installation, except that we first glue an underlay to the floor and then glue the carpet to the underlay. The underlay for this type of installation can not be any carpet underlay but a high-density commercial underlay explicitly made for this type of installation. Still must use a smooth edge and heat seaming tape to join the carpet. Used for commercial applications and areas of high traffic. Used in pubs, clubs, hotels and casinos, to name a few.
The advantages of Dual Bond installation over direct glue down are:
- More comfortable.
- More insulation.
- The pad will extend the life of the carpet.
Disadvantages are:
- Even more difficult to remove than direct glue down when replacement is necessary.
- Higher costs. Underlay costs more than normal underlay. The heavyweight and density of dual bond underlay cost more than conventional underlay.
- Gluing down the underlay and then gluing down the carpet. It’s like doing the installation twice, which the installer is paid for.
- The advantages of Dual Bond installation over conventional lay are:
- It will not ruck up with traffic and wear, and also will not cause trip hazards with the top of the carpet.
- Takes heavier loads rolled across the top of the carpet
- Helps with laying and sefting out borders on the carpet.
The Disadvantages are over the conventional lay.
- Same as with the Direct stick, extra cost for uplifting and installing.
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