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Cheap Carpeting: Using Carpet Samples Creatively
When it comes to carpet for your home, you may want carpet that you install yourself. There are ways that you can carpet a room very inexpensively, without having to spend a lot of money. Carpet can get very expensive in a hurry, which is why saving money is so very important to those on a tight budget.
One very cheap way you can carpet a room is by using carpet samples. This is actually considered new carpet, as samples aren't considered to be used.
You can buy samples of carpet for .25 cents a piece at closeout sales or at your local hardware or carpet store. Depending on the size of the room you are looking to carpet, how many samples you'll need will vary. You'll also need staples as well, which cost around a dollar or so. Most of the time, you can expect to pay a dollar or so for each square of carpet, which is still considered to be cheap carpet.
Keep in mind that using samples or square is a very unusual style and you have to think about the resale value of your home. If you have a trailer or mobile home, then the style is probably going to be unusual and cheap to start with. If you have an expensive or mid priced home, then you may decide to use cheap carpeting in the basement, playroom, or in a children's playhouse.
If you are doing a children's playroom, using multi-colored carpet is perfect. It is very colorful and if a spill stains one of the squares of carpet, you can quickly and easily pull it back up and install a new one. This is a great advantage to doing a playroom this way.
Installing your cheap carpet The only things you'll actually need when you install carpet samples or squares in a room is a carpet knife and a staple gun. The 5/8" staples seem to work the best for squares and samples.
All you need to do is put the carpet piece in place and staple in two or three staples along each side. Make sure you wiggle the head of the stapler down deep between the fibers, or between the border and the fibers, so you can hide the staples as much as possible.
If you are carpeting a basement floor, you can use carpet tape instead of staples. With either case, this is best to do when padding isn't that important. You can use padding as well if you don't mind the complications, although without it, its pure simplicity.
You may also choose to lay out your pieces of carpet first, then decide where each individual piece will go. When you reach walls, heating sources, or other obstacles, you can quickly and easily cut the pieces to fit. If you happen to make a mistake, it will cost you around a dollar, instead of costing you a fortune. When you make a mistake, all you have to do is start over a new piece of carpet.
Before you begin to put the carpet down, you should always estimate how many pieces you will need, and then call around to find a store that has enough samples for the room.
Although the samples will range in size at different stores, the average is 18 X 18 inches. If you use pieces that are the same size, you'll find things to be much easier. Even though you may be paying a dollar a piece, it rounds out to less than .50 cents per square foot to carpet your room of choice - which is really cheap carpet!
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Copyright (R) Rhonda Morin, MyInteriorDecorator.com. Article may not be reprinted without permission and may not be reprinted without author byline including the active links.
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