Stretching A Carpet: 6 Essential Steps

Your carpet is one of the most essential parts of any room, yet it’s probably one that we don’t think about.

A carpet sees a lot of action every day, with lots of walking, running, and playing on it. As a result, carpets are likely to get baggy or loose, just like a t-shirt might.

What’s the solution? Stretching!

Stretching A Carpet: 6 Essential Steps

You’ll be able to tell when your carpet needs a good stretch because it will have a loose feel to it, with ripples and wrinkles.

When you see this, it’s time to restretch the carpet. If you don’t, the carpet could become permanently damaged, meaning that you’d have to buy a new one.

In our handy guide below, we’ve got 6 essential steps to help you stretch your carpet. 

Stretching A Carpet: 6 Essential Steps

Every carpet is going to get loose eventually. Whether it’s poorly put down or professionally installed, each carpet will grow looser and more wrinkled with use and other factors – even humidity can cause the corners to come loose. 

As a result, you need to properly stretch the corners of your carpet. 

This will require a few expensive tools. If you only need to stretch a single corner, it’s not worth buying the tools. Instead, you should hire a professional , because it will likely be cheaper!

However, if you have lots of carpet corners to stretch, and plan to do it in the future too, then you will need to buy:

Tools

  • Pair of pliers
  • Screwdriver
  • Pry bar
  • Utility knife
  • Power stretcher
  • Knee kicker
  • Working gloves

Safety

When following these steps and using the necessary tools, you must always make sure that you’re using them safely. Always wear protective clothing, like working gloves, and make sure other people stay away from the tools.

If you’re inexperienced with DIY, hire a professional.

Step One: Empty Your Room

To begin, you’ll need to empty the room with the carpet in. Move all the furniture and decorations to a different, safe room. Finally, vacuum the carpet clean.

Step Two: Pulling The Carpet With Pliers

Now you need to get your pair of pliers and carefully pull up the carpet. The carpet will likely be attached to a tack strip, so be extra gentle when pulling, so as not to damage the carpet. 

Pull the carpet up at the edges all the way around the room.

Step Three: Setting Up The Carpet Power Stretcher

Step Three: Setting Up The Carpet Power Stretcher

Next it’s time to get your carpet power stretcher. This is an important part of machinery, so you need to use it properly. First study then the instructions, then position the power stretcher against the piece of wood.

If your stretcher has an extension pole, you can use that and extend it to the wall opposite to the one you’re working at. 

Step Four: Using The Carpet Power Stretcher

With the power stretcher in place, now it’s time to use it. 

First, you need to lock the power stretcher onto the carpet. When you use it, you need to be aware of the tool’s tension levels. 

If your particular carpet requires more strength to stretch it properly, you can adjust the stretcher’s tension level and use less force yourself. The same works for the opposite, less strength for stretching will need a tension adjustment too. 

Step Five: Repeat The Stretching

Once you’ve stretched one part of the carpet, you will need to repeat the process for the whole thing, until the entire carpet is smooth and firm. 

Though you’ll need to move the carpet power stretcher each time, the final result will be worth it.

Step Six: Cutting The Carpet Down

Once you stretch a carpet, it will likely look a lot bigger than it did before. This is normal and easy to fix.

Simply get your utility knife (Also check out The Best Carpet Knives) and carefully cut down the over-long bits of carpet, so that your carpet fits the room snuggly at each corner and edge. 

Alternatively, you can fold the over-long bits of carpet underneath the baseboard instead. This may not be quite as clean, but it is easier.

Final Thoughts

Every carpet needs to be stretched eventually – follow our steps carefully to do it!

Johnathon Gooder
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