Need advice on laying felt backed carpet!

[sandblast]

Hi all!

I need to replace my carpets, and I’m going to have a go at doing it myself. I didn’t realise carpet and underlay was so cheap when going the DIY route. I only have a small one bedroom flat and my needs are very basic.

I have been looking at one site and most of the carpets sold are ‘felt backed’, but I am finding a lot of conflicting info about how to properly install it. Their how-to guide includes underlay and grippers, however I read a few posts online saying felt backed carpet shouldn’t be used with grippers, as they were designed to grip the mesh backed hessian style carpets and will tear felt. Instead, spray adhesive or Velcro tape should be used.

The outgoing carpet is felt backed with very old underlay and grippers. They may have been left in place from a previous installation. I will be replacing the underlay. I have read that felt backed carpets do not need underlay but that’s not something I would consider!

So, do I remove everything including the grippers, re underlay, right to the edges, glue down, then do the same with the felt backed carpet on top of it? Or do I use the existing grippers? Or is that wrong? I’m totally lost with this, so any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Wayners]

I used felt backed carpet with gripper ok. Felt backed carpet is cheap stuff that don't last so who cares. Get it' down.

 

[crazydaze]

You can lay it either way, there’s actually specific gripper for felt back that doesn’t have nails to grip the backing but for the price, use what you have and plenty of spray adhesive around the edges.