Patch Cut

Berber Carpet Repair, Runs, Snags and Patches

Repairing A Run In A Berber Carpet

Here's the main website with dozens of before, during and after pictures as well as many videos on carpet repair.

Do you have a Berber carpet that's running like an old wool sweater? Did your dog or cat or child pull on a loose thread? If your Berber carpet has a snag or a run It can be fairly simple to repair. There's more than one way to do this so for now I'll explain two ways to fix your Berber carpet

Prepare by gathering the following tools and supplies:

1. 1″ blue painters tape
2. Small glass of water
3. Awl
4. Glue gun with glue stick
5. Knitting needle or a chop stick
6. Something flat and heavy like a clean toolbox or a 12″ stack of books.
7. A second set of hands can be useful.

The first method  is if the loose Berber thread in good enough shape to reuse it?
The second method is if the run in your Berber carpet is more serious. Perhaps it's more than one small run or the thread is missing.

Repairing a run in a Berber carpet

If  you recall your high school  algebra you'll recall that the first thing we need to do is to isolate X... the problem.

• From the top of the carpet use the blue painters tape to protect the good parts of the carpet. Mask it off so that the backing of the carpet is showing but the good Berber carpet nap is protected under the tape. The purpose is to hold the undamaged carpet out of the way. If you do this correctly your work space will look like a framed picture of the backing of the carpet.
• Plug in the glue gun and fill a glass of water.
• When the glue is molten hot, shoot a small amount on the backing of the carpet. I suggest you just work on about one half of an inch at a time. As you get better at repairing a run in a Berber carpet you can do an inch or more at a time.
• Get the knitting needle and the tip of the awl wet and keep it wet the whole time you're working. This will lessen the likely hood of the hot glue sticking to it. If the glue does get stuck to the awl or the knitting needle it can be a real mess. Use the tip of the knitting needle to and the tip of the awl to work the loose Berber thread into the backing of the carpet.
• Move forward to the next area and place some weight on the part you just finished. Remember to dip the tips of your awl and knitting needle in water every minute or so.
• Tips: Take your time and be careful to not burn yourself. If you're not used to using a hot glue gun, you probably will burn yourself. The instant you realize you have some hot glue on your skin, douce it with water. The molten glue burns hot for a long time so the quicker you get some water on it, the less it will burn you.

 

Patching Berber Carpet

Now on to method #2:

If the run is your Berber carpet is more extensive then you may want to actually do a patch. Use all the same tools and supplies listed above but add:

1. Slotted blade knife
2. Sharp scissors
3. Carpet seam tape
4. Scrap of carpet. If you don't have a scrap of carpet left over from the original installation you can cut a piece out from a closet. If that's not possible you can pull up the carpet from the side of the room, cut off a piece and then stretch the carpet back into place using a power stretcher. Using a carpet power stretcher won't be covered in this article.

• From the top of the carpet use the blue painters tape to protect the good parts of the carpet. Mask it off so that the backing of the carpet is showing but the good Berber carpet nap is protected under the tape. The purpose is to hold the undamaged carpet out of the way. If you do this correctly your work space will look like a framed picture of the backing of the carpet.
• Plug in the glue gun and fill a glass of water.
• Cut through the backing of the carpet paying special attention to not cutting the rows of nap. Use the slotted blade knife careful. It's not nicknamed the Bloody Mary knife for nothing. Remove the backing so that you can see all the way through to the pad.
• Cut a piece of carpet seam tape an inch or so longer  than the carpet and then center it  on top of the padding and directly under the carpet patch.
• Cut a piece of carpet to use to do the patch using the slotted blade knife and the trimming it with the scissors.
• Place it on the seam tape and be sure that it fits just right. Take your time trimming it to perfection with the scissors.
• Glue it into place using the glue gun. Use a moderate amount of glue to glue the carpet path not only to the seam tape but also glue the edges of the carpet together. Use enough glue so that you don't have to ever wonder if the carpet will come unravelled.
• Push the carpet into the glue and place some weight on it for a couple of minutes as you move forward.

 

About the Author

Steve Gordon has more than 30 years experience in the carpet industry and now owns and runs Creative Carpet Repair, a nationwide carpet repair company with locations in most cities across the United States.

For dozens of carpet repair videos and hundreds of before and after pictures please visit the main website at creativecarpetrepair.com

For more articles please visit the blog at creativecarpetrepair.com/blog

What can I cut a patch of burned carpet out with?

I am trying to patch a burned spot of carpet with a new patch of carpet but can't cut the bad carpet out with the tools I have around the house. What works for this?

It wont look bad at all by the way!!! It is the easiest trick in the book, tons of people do this and its works out very well! I've done it with cigarette burns in my carpet before after a housewarming party. I thought my carpet was toast and it sure wasn't. Here's a good blog on how to cover up cigarette burns/burn in your carpet... use a razor or whatever does the job...! Here's the step by step instructions

http://blogs.findanyfloor.com/consumer/CareAndMaintenance/RemovingCigaretteBurns.xhtml

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 7:56 am and is filed under scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.