Carpet Fitters don’t do building

..So why are builders Carpet fitters and Floorlayers

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to visit one of my customers who have had their hallway altered.  They wanted a new doormat and some new door thresholds after having some building work done.  As part of the building work the builder had laid a new wooden floor in this hallway, however there were number of small problems that spoilt the final finish, but the builder said a carpet fitters could fix these.  The problems were:

• The door thresholds; the builder had not fitted thresholds to the doorways, however we couldn’t fix this because the flooring was stuck to the sub-floor and he had not left a sufficient gap for a new threshold or door bar to be inserted.  This gap is too small to insert a door bar or threshold but wide enough to collect loads of small bits of dirt and rubbish.
• The fitting of the wooden flooring stopped where the builder needed to trim under door frames and working round the fiddly bits of the building.  You should expect your wooden floor to go under the door frames and to be fitted in all the nooks and crannies of a room.  Consequently the home owner has got to have a massive doormat to fill this gap.

I am a carpet fitter and floor layer not a builder, plumber, decorator or electrician, so if a job I am doing requires some preliminary work by any of these trades, for example fixing a radiator, asphalting a floor to prevent damp or moving some wires I would ask my customer to get someone in to do this before we start work.  So why do builders insist of fitting flooring.

This is not the first time I have seen problems created by the builder laying a floor.  Other examples include fitting wooden or laminate flooring before the floor is dry enough.  Wood is very sensitive to moisture and although the modern manufacturing processes mean it can cope with the normal changes you get in a home according to the seasons, anything above this will result in the wood expanding.  So if your sub-floor is not dry enough you floor will move and in 6-12 months after the installation your boards will start to bend and move.

The carpet fitting and floor laying is something that is always done at the end of any building or decorating project in your home.  However it makes a big difference to the look and feel of your home and can be one of the more expensive items, therefore it makes sense to get it right first time.  I would recommend you get advice and a quote for new carpets and flooring early in the project.  This will avoid making mistakes that cannot be rectified at a later date.  I am always happy to make a home visit to give advice and a quote for new carpets, flooring and carpet fitting with no obligation to my customers in the Leicester, Rugby, Northampton and surrounding areas.  If you live outside my catchment area for carpet fitting I recommend you visit the NICF (National Institute of Carpet and Floorlayers) who can recommend a carpet fitter local to you.