Laying Carpet Tiles

Laying carpet can be a fairly difficult project if you have never done it before. In fact, there are often some specialized tools that you will need to use in order to get your tile looking really good. Laying carpet tiles is a really inexpensive, and less labor intensive, method to spruce up a room. If you are interested in laying some of these tiles yourself, all you need to do is follow these simple steps.

1. Identify the center of a wall. Since carpet tile is usually laid in some kind of a pattern, it really helps to understand where the center of each wall is located. The easiest method for doing this is by simply using a marker and a tape measure. With the help of a friend, measure the wall that you will be starting with. When you know the length of the wall, divide it in half to figure out where the center is. Place a mark with the marker, or even a pencil, to indicate where the center is.
2. Identify the center of the tile. Repeat the measuring procedure on a carpet tile. Place the center of the tile inline with the center of the wall. Once you have done that, mark each side of the tile on the wall. This will end up giving you a complete and simple to use guide that you can use to begin laying the tiles. If you would like, you can also use some chalk lines based off of these marks to help you know where to place the tiles. If you repeat the centering process on each wall, you will even get a cross hair patter that you can use to start your pattern laying.
3. Begin placing tiles. If you are using the cross hair pattern, locate the center of the cross hair, and lay down the first tile. Remove the covering on the adhesive backing, and then lay the tile down in the middle of the cross hairs. Make sure that you press down firmly to help ensure that the tile adhesive gets a firm grip onto the surface.
4. Lay tiles in a pattern. Repeat the laying process for each of the tiles that you plan on putting onto the floor. However, when you are doing this make sure that you are doing it in whatever pattern you decide on. If it helps, you can always create the pattern you will be laying with the help of a pen and a pad of graph paper.
5. Trim edge pieces. Continue laying the carpet tiles, until you are within one tile of the edge of the room. Carefully measure the distance between the edge of one laid tile and the wall. Trim the tiles that you will be laying down to these new dimensions. Be careful when you do this that you do not cut too much off, or you can end up with a gap between the edge of the tiles and the wall. Repeat the entire carpet laying process until you have finished laying the tiles.