Expert: Jim Goddard - 3/8/2004

Question
Hello Jim,

I have a small area of carpet, where the living room (carpet) and dining room (wood floor) join together in a doorway, that has been chewed up by my dog.  I was wondering how do I repair this small section?  My first thought was to make a clean cut of the carpet the full width of the doorway and place an oak board 36" x 3" x 1/4" to cover the bare spot and make the transition from the carpet to the wood floor.  The section of carpet I would cut out would be roughly 3" x 36".  If this would be acceptable, how do prepare the carpet before I put down the oak piece?  Is it right to assume that the edge of the carpet should fit under the oak piece to keep the carpet in place?  How best should I make this transition?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Best regards,
Brent

Answer
Brent,

If the dining room hardwood extends into the living room at the same level, then you can cut off the bad edge of the carpet and then turn the edge in to create a carpet finished edge.  Staple down the turned edge with an electric stape gun.  

If the dining floor level is higher than the living room, then you can use that piece of oak idea of yours.  However, you will need a little piece of tack strip to place 3/8 inche away from the oak's edge.  The pad can go up to the tack strip, and the carpet goes over the pad, over the tack strip (kicked there into place with a knee kicker), and tucked between the valley you left between the tack strip and the edge of the oak strip.  See http://doityourself.com/carpet/howtoinstallcarpet.htm for more details on using tack strip.

Hope this helps,

Jim
aka www.carpetguru.com