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Have you recently encountered a stain, burn or problem area in your carpet that simply cannot be hidden?
If this is the case, you may want to consider repairing the carpet yourself, especially if it has minimal damage.
Carpet repairs can be done with only a limited amount of related experience, as long as you follow the instructions given.
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Do-It-Yourself Carpet Repair Tips
If you have an area where there has been a burn or you want to cut out a stain and repair it with new carpet, you have a few options. If you're lucky enough to still have some extra carpet left in your garage or basement, you can simply cut out a piece and use it for your new installation.
If you don't have any extra carpet, you can try to find a small area where a piece of the carpet missing will not be noticed, such as the inside of a closet or under a radiator. Remember this will only work if you need a small amount to repair. Otherwise, you may need to visit the store that sold you the original carpet and see if they can sell you a carpet square to do the patch job.
Something important to keep in mind is that if your carpet has seen a great deal of wear and tear, patching it will inevitably show a distinction between the two pieces. You need to first assess how different they'll look and determine how much this will bother you. Eventually the small patch will fade as well, but it may never fully match the majority of the carpet that will continue to fade as well.
For a very small area of repair, it's recommended that you simply use a razor to trim the damaged area down to the carpet backing. From here, it's best to use something small, like a toothpick, to apply an adhesive to the new backing. If you can, gently apply the adhesive on the trimmed down fibers without getting it on the surrounding fibers, to avoid having them stick together. You may need to trim the new carpet patch to allow it to fit uniformly with the rest of the carpet that's significantly worn down.
If you have a larger piece of carpet that is damaged, you may not be able to get away with simply trimming down the old fibers and placing new ones over them. Instead, you may have to actually cut out the damaged carpet and replace it with a new piece of carpet tile. Again, a new piece of carpet will be extremely noticeable, depending on how worn the remainder of the carpet in that room is. If at all possible, try to keep the shape of the new piece in a rectangular or square pattern to allow it to fit better.
When using this method, pay close attention to the grain of the carpet to make sure you place the new piece of carpet along the same grain as the current carpet. If you cannot determine the grain of the carpet, simply vacuum around the area and see which direction the carpet moves in.
From here you will cut out the damaged area and size your carpet tile to be a little larger or exactly the same size as the damaged area. Be sure to test the carpet patch size before actually sticking the adhesive to the back and placing it on the floor. Many experts will suggest not adhering the new patch to the actual carpet padding, but to instead get another piece of flooring, such as burlap, of the same size to place on top.
First place this piece of flooring into the empty area. Do not put the adhesive onto the new piece, but instead onto the burlap or secondary piece of flooring. Then press the new piece into the area. Allow 24 hours for the carpet to properly dry.
Keep in mind that for either type of patching, you can use both carpet glue or carpet tape. For smaller damaged areas, it's best to use carpet tape, but larger pieces will require carpet glue.
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