Carpet fitter installed evil biting carpet?

BatCat

Hi Folks,
Sorry for the odd subject line.
We bought some carpet from carpet right in December and had it fitted by their fitter just before Xmas. The carpet was fitted on two landings and stairs. They supplied the underlay and gripper rods on one stairs and landing, the other set of gripper rods was already in place.
Over the past 6 months we've had various incidents of cuts from the gripper rods on both sets of stairs. I've had gashes to my big toes, the kids have had cuts in their heels and a visiting 4 year old hurt her foot also.
I've finally had enough.
I take it this is an issue with the carpet installation? There was carpet on the stairs before but it never cut our feet before. Is there anything we can do?
Thanks,
BatCat

gordikin

Post in the Consumer Rights forum?

BatCat

Cheers gordikin, but I'm trying to make sure it is the fault of the carpet installer (which it probably is) and if there's anything we could do to make it better. From what I remember carpet right are notoriously slippery about the standards of their carpet fitters.

keystone

The carpet you bought is just too thin - certainly when compared with the carpet you replaced. Is it felt backed?

The fitter has fitted the carpet you supplied him to fit so he has done the job you paid him to do. I can't see how you can blame him as the only alternative solution would have been to glue the carpet direct to the treads without underlay or grippers. It could be argued that he might have discussed this possibility with you - perhaps he did?

Your solution is either to use a appropriately sized adjusting tool

and knock the tops of gripper nails over so that you don't feel them through the carpet but they still hold the carpet down;

or take it up, remove gripper and underlay and glue it down;

or replace with a better quality carpet.

Cheers

WestonDave

Sounds to me like the carpet is thin and the spikes on the grippers are effectively surfacing through the pile of the carpet. Not sure how that's a fitting issue. Its certainly not their grippers as its happening on both. The trouble is stairs is that the only way to fit stair carpets is to put two grippers at the join of the upright and back of the flat part. They then stretch the carpet into that joint. If the carpet is thin then as you walk upstairs and kick the back of the stair you will hit a nail coming through, similarly when coming down you will catch your heel on either the vertical ones or stand on the flat ones. If you have a complaint its probably that the carpet shouldn't have been sold for stairs rather than the way its been fitted. On a flat floor this problem still occurs but as it is only at the very edges of the room the chances of you walking on that bit of floor are so small that its not a big issue.

If its not a thin carpet but a very soft one you might find that as it gets crushed down it may clog the spikes and stop the problem.

Telza123

Hi

I am a fully qualified Floor layer, The problem may lie with the gripper used, there are short pin gripper rods available, and normally this is what i use to install thinner carpets in rooms or on stairs. The short pin gripper rods do exactly what they say on the tin, they have shorter pins so they do not go straight through the carpet and protrude.

BatCat

Thanks folks, it is a felt backed reasonably cheap carpet (we have 2 small boys and a cat and my husband works in muddy sites... so expensive carpet would be silly at this stage) so I guess it is too thin for the gripper rods the fitter used. I will ring them up and ask about the smaller nailed gripper rods(thank you Telza!!) and then consider bashing them all down with a hammer!
Cheers,
BatCat

ormus

before you go mad with the hammer, cut yerself a bit of wood the same length as the grippers/treads and use that (as an anvil) over the grippers. then use the hammer.
same for the landing. the longer the wood the better.

ps.
(wood a few inches wide is enough).

ronnoco32

Telza123 wrote: »

Hi

I am a fully qualified Floor layer, The problem may lie with the gripper used, there are short pin gripper rods available, and normally this is what i use to install thinner carpets in rooms or on stairs. The short pin gripper rods do exactly what they say on the tin, they have shorter pins so they do not go straight through the carpet and protrude.

I too am a fully qualified floorlayer with 26 years experience.the problem is not with the fitting or the grippers.out of all the carpet shops i have fitted floorcovering for,i have yet to experience one that stocks different height gripper pins.all have only stocked "medium pin"grippers.i have used this type of gripper since i started working with carpets and,feeling the pins through the carpet was never a problem.the problem lies with the cheap,thin carpet that is being sold these days.i am sick of people complaining to me that they can feel gripper pins through the carpet when it was the customer who bought the carpet from the shop and the shop only stocks the medium pin gripper.THE SOLOUTION.....BUY CARPET THAT IS THICKER THAN 4MM!!

Telza123

Yes thicker carpet is the best answer. I supply carpet and gripper (Long Pin - Medium Pin - Short Pin)