Laying carpet on engineered floor

lebowski1980 · 20 January 2020 at 6:01PM

Hi all

I've had conflicted feedback from different carpet fitters about laying underlay then carpet on a wood engineered floor. We want carpet for now but may want to lift up in time when kids are older or if we sell.

One fitter said would be okay as long as we accept gripper going down around the edges and other one has said no way on the basis that the floor would be too high. I have no issue with trimming the door and the threshold being a little raised but is there any technical reason why this can not be done as the floor will not be so much higher that there is any risk of headbutting any lights or ceilings (loads and loads of clearance)

Thank you

grumbler · 20 January 2020 at 6:22PM

I am not a fitter, but I don't see any problems except that normally gripper gets nailed to the floor - that will damage your existing one.
Also, if it's a hollow door, there is a limit for trimming it, especially if it was already trimmed once.

Rodders53 · 20 January 2020 at 6:49PM

Engineered wood and its underlay could be an inch (25mm to you youngsters) thick.

It will be irreparably damaged by gripper strips. So best to rip up and fit underlay and carpet on the base floor. Some engineered wood floor panels are click fit so may even be able to be kept and re-laid (but may need marking on base as to the order - as they are cut to size during fitting). Others are glued and will be ruined by lifting.

Doors may have been trimmed already so be wary of that.

Why not just have rugs with suitable anti-slip precautions if the flooring is good quality?

lebowski1980 · 21 January 2020 at 10:37AM

Rodders53 wrote: »

Engineered wood and its underlay could be an inch (25mm to you youngsters) thick.

It will be irreparably damaged by gripper strips. So best to rip up and fit underlay and carpet on the base floor. Some engineered wood floor panels are click fit so may even be able to be kept and re-laid (but may need marking on base as to the order - as they are cut to size during fitting). Others are glued and will be ruined by lifting.

Doors may have been trimmed already so be wary of that.

Why not just have rugs with suitable anti-slip precautions if the flooring is good quality?

Thanks Rodders. So my thought was that holes from girppers could be filled if the carpet came up and would not be classed as irreparably damaged?

The wooden floor sits under the skirting and door frames and it looks like the threshold is glued down. I trying to figure out the best way to start to get the floor up carefully to see if it's glued down or not? I'm guessing by the door and breaking the threshold is the best way?

grumbler · 21 January 2020 at 11:44AM

The floor is unlikely to be glued down. It's the boards that may or may not be glued together.

"irreparably damaged" - this depends on how you define it. The nails are pretty thick. I'd try using thermoglue instead of the nails. It doesn't stick hard and, if needed, you can later use a heat gun to remove the gripper.

As an option, if the floor surface is good, you can consider not using both the underlay and the gripper - thus reducing the extra thickness.

Silvertabby · 21 January 2020 at 3:28PM

We had engineered oak fitted a couple of years ago. The fitter didn't glue it down - he nailed it (the nails went underneath the next plank and so can't be seen). I suppose it all depends on the base floor.

You'd ruin it by fitting gripper rods - you'd never be able to fill in the holes perfectly. Would a large rug (or two) not be a better option?

We have an elderly feline rather than young children - but let's just say that the wood is far easier to clean than the previous carpet (hence the change!)

lebowski1980 · 21 January 2020 at 4:59PM

I appreciate the responses.
We do have an 18 month old and a newborn and the feeling is that carpet is better from a noise and a safety point of view (with the 18 month old climing everywhere)
We discussed rugs but my partner is 100% against them and wants a carpet.

If the floor does need to come up then fine, it would be a shame as it's good quality but that's the compromise. I just wanted to be sure that this was the only way.

We would like an underlay to the carpet for comfort and dont really just want it sitting on the top without as surely wouldnt be as comfy?

Perhaps an adhesive on the carpet may work and preserve the floor?

Silvertabby · 22 January 2020 at 1:17PM

Another option would be to have a 'whipped' carpet. We did this in our first conservatory (tiled floor) - it involves the fitter cutting the carpet to the exact size/shape of the room then taking it away to have the edges whipped (bound with matching stitching) to seal the edges.

Won't be cheap, though - from memory, our conservatory carpet cost about twice what it would have done had it been fitted conventionally.

Cheaper than ripping up your oak flooring and then replacing it once the kiddies are older, though.

Another thing to ponder should you decide to remove the oak. When ours was fitted, our skirting boards were removed and then new boards fitted on top of the oak (thus leaving a little expansion room under the skirting boards). If you replace your oak with carpet, then you may either have to live with a gap under the skirting boards or replace them as well. It all depends on how thick your oak flooring is.

jennifernil · 22 January 2020 at 10:29PM

Wood will be much easier to clean when the children spill stuff on it, but I can understand your concern at them possibly falling and hurting themselves, though children are very resilient!

It would be a shame to pull up or otherwise ruin a good wooden floor.

We have an almost 2 years old grandson, the floors in his home are ceramic tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms, and wood/laminate/LVT everywhere else.
He loves climbing on the furniture, the higher the better, has had a few tumbles, but has not suffered anything other than minor bruises.

In the area where he mostly plays his mum has put down interlocking foam tiles, they are softer than the wood and warm to crawl and sit on. In the house he wears either slippers or those socks that have the rubber grippy spots on the soles, which are very good.

Otherwise they have large rugs in the 2 lounge areas, held in place by the furniture. I would agree that several small rugs are not a good plan.

One rug is a large one from their previous house, the other was cut from a larger fitted carpet they lifted from another room and had the edges whipped. There are lots of carpet places that have large offcuts/end of roll pieces that they will sell to you quite cheaply, often just for the price of the whipping, which is usually about £3-£4 per meter of perimeter. Or if you want a particular carpet you can buy the size you need and have that whipped.

lebowski1980 · 23 January 2020 at 12:19PM

Thanks everyone

I had a carpet guy suggest getting the carpet whipped to me. It would increase the £500 cost to around £900 but would be the least disruptive method and preserve the existing floor.
How does underlay work for this though? For me, part of the comfort factor of carpet is being able to sit on it and feel cushioned. If the whipped carpet is essentially a fitted rug on the floor, then some of the comfort is lost?

There are a couple of spots where the whipped edge would be noticebale - especially around the hearthstone of the fireplace although it may not look that bad i guess. I'm going to have a look at some examples now

neilmcl · 23 January 2020 at 5:44PM

I can't see a whipped carpet ever looking that great over the long term. Without grippers keeping the carpet taut then inevitably it's going to move and bunch up. Think what's going to happen the minute you get a half decent vacuum cleaner running on it or your your kids running up and down on it.

Laying carpet on engineered floor

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