How hard is fitting carpet?

[Mossball]

We have a small hallway near the back door and it currently has horrendous laminate that has been badly laid. I want to replace with either jute or seagrass carpet. It's a small space approx 2m by 2.2m. I have seen carpet remnants on eBay of the sort of carpet I want. How difficult is this to do as a DIY job?

Give it a go - no doubt plenty of you tube videos on how to do it

Honestly, the carpet stretcher will cost more than having fitters put it in. The fitters round here charge £20 per room and a carpet stretcher is £50. You’d also need to buy the cutting tool. You might need to learn how to do a seam depending on the size of the remnants.

On a side note, jute/sea grass aren’t really suitable for areas that get wet/muddy as they tend to go all soggy and mouldy, the mould makes them stink as well. Something to consider when thinking about a hallway from an exterior door.

I worked for a large carpet contracting company, but my husband has fitted our bedroom carpets ok and we don’t have a carpet stretcher/kicker, there are already grippers by the doors, he’s quite handy with a stanley knife. He wouldn’t attempt hall, stairs or lounge carpet though. I would give it a go, put carpet double sided tape around the edges that does have grippers. What about a kitchen rug.

Very and sea grass is the next level
if you do it yourself you can always put beading on bottom of skirting to hide any errors
mad someone else pointed out I wouldn’t put sea grass in hall

Sea grass is very difficult to cut and fit, pay someone to do it.

I’ve laid carpet myself; it wasn’t hard at all, hardest thing was moving the furniture! I didn’t use a stretcher and it has been fine. I’m in London so a carpet fitter wouldn’t cost £20 here.

Who is going to get out of bed to fit a carpet for 20 quid ?

I would love to know.

I think replace the laminate yourself and put a washable mat on top.

The fitters round here are independent contractors that work for the carpet shops. They did 4 rooms for us, the bedrooms, they did 2 one day and came back and did 2 the next day. It took them less than twenty minutes each time. Then they were on to the next job. I tipped them £10 each day too, so paid £50 each day as they did a really good job going round doorways and doing it by the closets. They did new underlay and new carpet, price quoted was £20 per room.

They were cheap because DH moved all the furniture out, pulled up the old carpet and underlay (too it to the tip), pulled up any sticking up nail tacks, fixed any damaged gripper, loosened the floor rails for the sliding closet doors so the new carpet could be slid underneath and swept the bare wood floors so the rooms were fully prepped for them. They also left all the scraps and such from cutting the underlay and carpet to fit behind and we took them to the tip.

It costs more if you want the fitters to move furniture, pull up the old carpet/flooring and prep the floor to be carpeted. It’s a waste of their time and skills really to have them do the prep.

You were having more more than 1 carpet fitted so they got more money, they will usually get money from the carpet shop too.

op needs 1 carpet fitting and nobody will come out and do it for £20

I have no idea where anyone would get a carpet fitted for £20!

When I looked into getting my box room carpet fitted it was £60

Carpet fitters use stretchers because they lay the carpet straight from the roll. If you unroll and leave to rest for a few days,the carpet will relax itself and you don't need stretchers. Best thing I ever had in a small high traffic hallway was heavy duty,commercial quality carpet tiles. Couldn't be easier to lay,could take up individual tiles for cleaning and could rotate tlles for even wear.

This was my Dad's profession and I've watched him do it many times. Very hard physically (carpet stretcher used by hitting it with leg just above knee). Hard work in a normal room, trickier in a hall because of small space.

Why not get a good quality runner?