Quick question for those with more knowledge than myself in this field. We’re planning on laying 400 sf of carpet over hardwood floors. Carpet distributor said that it is standard practice to glue the pad down over any solid flooring. The hardwood floors currently need to be refinished and they do not support our current pets lifestyles. I just want to know if the glue will have a lasting/damaging effect on floors that need to be refinished anyway. A search through the archived posts produced no luck.
Thanks,
Ryan
Replies
glueing makes it very tuff on restoring thefloors....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I figured the same. At one point the floor was covered in berber and the padding was stapled down. I don't recall feeling the pad shifting or moving around at all. Is there anything you can recommend that I do to help ensure the carpet/pad is installed with the longest life in mind?
Ryan
Please please do not glue down the carpet over your hardwood floor.
Contrary to the comment you received, it is most certainly NOT standard practice to glue down carpet over a hardwood floor. Gluing carpet is normally reserved for just about any other surface like concrete where installing a tack strip along the perimeter would be too difficult.
In addition to making it hard to refinish, the glue may indeed cause lasting damage in the form of filling in the the cracks and dings in the floor that may be deeper/beyond the level of the refinishing to be done later. Trying to get dried carpet adhesive out of the gaps between boards will be a nightmare later.
Love your pets and save that floor. BTW, make sure you get a carpet pad with a waterproof barrier so that any spills or pet accidents don't make it down to the hardwood. This will also help avoid pulling up dirt from the wood when you clean the carpet.
Thanks eveyone for the input.
The moisture barrier/microban treated pad costs about $ .15 more a sf so I might get that to help protect the floors. I think I am hearing that I don't even need to staple the pad down? With to labs running through the house I would figure I need to help keep things in place as best as I can.
> I think I am hearing that I don't even need to staple the pad down? I'm saying that the felt pads in my house and my mother's house were not stapled down. I've seen other installation with foam rubber pads that weren't stapled either. In all of these, the joints between the pad sections were taped with an appropriate tape. The pad then essentially became one solid sheet. Carpet was secured with tack strips nailed to the edges of the floor.In cases in which the carpet was installed over plywood, the pads were stapled down.George Patterson, Patterson Handyman Service.
Typical concrete slab floors with "builder grade" carpet usually have rebond foam padding. And it is usually lightly glued in place because it will shift. Spend a few bucks and get a quality pad and don't glue it."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
As I am in the process of trying to have a floor refinished that had been subjected to dog urine, I would definitely say pay whatever is asked to get the moisture resistant pad. The regular carpet pad holds the moisture for a long time and the result is a deeply discolored floor that can't be sanded out easily, if at all. On my house, the regular foam style carpet pad was held around the edges with tack strips and stapled along the seams. The staples were tedious to pull out, but I was surprised that where they had been was not noticeable when the floor was refinished - except where the staples had rusted from the pet urine, and even there it was a fairly minor blemish.Piddling pets and normal carpet pads are an expensive combination when time comes to refinish a hardwood floor...
some staples will help...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I would avoid that distributor. Gluing is definitely not the way to go with the pad. If you go with the old style felt padding, you don't even have to staple it down. My house was built in the 60s; I don't know when the carpet was put in. My mother's house was carpeted in 1963. In neither house was the pad stapled or glued, and there have never been any complaints.
Due to allergies, I pulled the carpet in our house, and my Mother has removed some from hers. The pad left a compression pattern in both cases, but neither of us had a bunch of little holes to fill (or glue to remove).
George Patterson