Felt backed carpet onto underlay and spikes from gripper

Joined
12 Jun 2009
Messages
269
Reaction score
3
Country
United Kingdom
I've used felt backed carpet with underlay and gripper before and it was never a tight fit and also you can feel the spikes from the gripper.

Spoke with a carpet fitter today and he said felt backed is designed for glueing not spikes and that it wont stretch like hessian so will never sit brilliantly.

To any professional carpet fitters out there - is this true? Is felt back and gripper a no no?
 
Sponsored Links
This is technically true, although there is specialist gripper designed for use with felt back carpet, this effectivel works in a similar way to velcro to grip the felt backing. Ideally, if you are going to use regular gripper, you would use short pin, not the standard medium pin and definately not long pin, also you would be better laying it on firm underlay to limit the squeeze pressure on the gripper.

The problem is that regular gripper is designed to firmly grip and hold into a constructed 'mesh' backing, felt back does not give this 'grip' and it's not uncommon for the felt to tear and thus come loose when stretched under pressure with a regular knee kicker etc.
 
This is technically true, although there is specialist gripper designed for use with felt back carpet, this effectivel works in a similar way to velcro to grip the felt backing. Ideally, if you are going to use regular gripper, you would use short pin, not the standard medium pin and definately not long pin, also you would be better laying it on firm underlay to limit the squeeze pressure on the gripper.

The problem is that regular gripper is designed to firmly grip and hold into a constructed 'mesh' backing, felt back does not give this 'grip' and it's not uncommon for the felt to tear and thus come loose when stretched under pressure with a regular knee kicker etc.

Many thanks for your reply which is very helpful. The carpet fitter was very wary not to stretch the felt too much and ended up stapling it into the gripper rods to hold securely.

Do you know the name of the specialist velcro like gripper for felt carpet you mentioned?
 
Sponsored Links
This is technically true, although there is specialist gripper designed for use with felt back carpet, this effectivel works in a similar way to velcro to grip the felt backing. Ideally, if you are going to use regular gripper, you would use short pin, not the standard medium pin and definately not long pin, also you would be better laying it on firm underlay to limit the squeeze pressure on the gripper.

The problem is that regular gripper is designed to firmly grip and hold into a constructed 'mesh' backing, felt back does not give this 'grip' and it's not uncommon for the felt to tear and thus come loose when stretched under pressure with a regular knee kicker etc.

Many thanks for your reply which is very helpful. The carpet fitter was very wary not to stretch the felt too much and ended up stapling it into the gripper rods to hold securely.

Do you know the name of the specialist velcro like gripper for felt carpet you mentioned?

We use Interfloor for our fitting accessories, their catalogue is on their website and the product is called Floorworks Microplast TM
Easy Gripper For Flat Areas.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Back
Top