How to Install Carpet With Furniture in the Room

Measure the room. Use a measuring tape and measure the length and width of the room so that you will know how large to cut the carpet. You will also need to measure and cut the pad if you are using carpet padding. The simplest carpet to lay is rubber-backed carpet because it requires no padding or tack strips to hold it in place.

Find a location where you can spread out the carpet, turn it over and cut it to fit the measurements that you have taken. You will need a carpet knife to cut the carpet.

Remove any old carpet, padding and/or tack strips from the floor. In order to do this you will have to work on one side of the room at a time, stacking your furniture on the other side of the room as you go.

Clean the floor, ensuring that there is no debris.

Stack the furniture on the opposite side of the room from where you plan to start laying the carpet.

Secure new tack strips to the floor along the walls on the side of the room you are working on. Do this by placing the tack strips ¼ inch from the wall and using ¼-inch nails to hammer down the strips. Two nails per strip will be sufficient. If you are using rubber-backed carpet, use two-sided tape and place the tape along the edge of the carpet all the way around the carpet edge.

Lay down the padding and roll out half of the carpet over the padding. Then attach the carpet to the tackstrips using the hammer, or remove the backing to the two-sided tape and lay the carpet on the floor along the edge of the wall, depending on what type of carpet you have. Be sure to smooth the carpet out as you go to avoid having any ripples on your floor.

Stack all of the furniture on the side of the room where the carpet has been laid and repeat steps 1 and 2 on the new side of the room. It is advisable to use a straight piece of lumber to stretch carpeting to walls where you will attach it to tack strips.