Clean floor before laying new carpet?

dunroving

Having just spent the best part of a day using my trusty new Titan vacuum to clear up after rewiring, I am pretty surprised just how much dust,grit,gravel, etc.,were on the floorboards and between the floorboards when the carpets were removed in my new house. Some of that was plaster chunks and dust generated by the chasing needed to install the rewire, but I think a heck of a lot is historical - simply put, the detritus of a house that's been lived in, redecorated, refloored, etc., for the past 55 years.

After the plasterers are done next week, I plan to re-do the process, and again after the decorator is done (though I don't expect him to generate anywhere near as much mess.)

But it struck me that when carpet fitters fit new carpets, they must often come across similar levels of crap underneath the old carpets when they lift them. Do they typically clear it all up? It took me ages, so I can't imagine they do. In which case the new carpet will have all that crap underneath it,wearing away at the underlay every time someone walks over it.

I've only ever once had new carpets fitted and I am pretty sure he didn't spend long cleaning the floorboards (though perhaps they weren't in bad condition - I vaguely recall they weren't too bad).

How important is it to clear up all the grit, dust and other crud before new carpets are fitted?


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pramsay13

Carpet fitters will typically only remove something if it has potential to cause a problem to a laid carpet, e.g. something bumpy.
It won't cause any major issues but if you want it cleaned beforehand feel free to organise time to do it or pay someone to do it for you.
I noticed something similar under the kitchen kickboards. There was a load of discarded screws and offcuts of cupboard carcasses etc.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Its important, and even now you have cleaned the floorboards you should lay lining paper first before the underlay.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Otherwise what can happen, particularly if you have gappy floorboards, is that hoovering can suck up the dirt from between the boards and through the carpet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I once had a cream carpet which developed black tramlines in this way. [/FONT]

pmartin86

I removed lathe and plater from my house during renvovation, i shudder to think about the layer of dust between the new plasterboard celings downstairs and the floor upstairs.


I'd suggest you move on with life and stop worrying...

pmartin86

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Its important, and even now you have cleaned the floorboards you should lay lining paper first before the underlay.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Otherwise what can happen, particularly if you have gappy floorboards, is that hoovering can suck up the dirt from between the boards and through the carpet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I once had a cream carpet which developed black tramlines in this way. [/FONT]

You either have a worryingly powerfull vaccum, no underlay, or a really !!!! carpet....

dunroving

pmartin86 wrote: »

I removed lathe and plater from my house during renvovation, i shudder to think about the layer of dust between the new plasterboard celings downstairs and the floor upstairs.


I'd suggest you move on with life and stop worrying...

Trying to do a decent job of doing up my house isn't causing me any worries and I'm moving on with life perfectly well. In fact I am fully enjoying all the challenges and conundrums.

Don't worry about me, I'm just fine.