(Square Yards = Square Feet divided by 9)

We've just finished the latest instructional carpet tile video.  This video will be the first of a series of a few videos with the theme of answering some of the first questions many people have when visiting our website, lotsofcarpet.com.  Check it out, and let us know what you think!  The full transcript follows below the video.

 

One of the first questions you might have when visiting lotsofcarpet.com is "What are carpet tiles?" and "How do I install them?"

Carpet tiles, also known as carpet squares, come in many different colors and pattern designs. These can range from solid colors, all the way to the wild prints typical of a casino floor. These also come in many different sizes: 18 inches, 20 inches, 24 inches, 36 inches, and 40 inches.

One of the advantages of carpet tiles is that there's already a backing in place, and each fiber of the carpet tile is fusion bonded into the backing, and this prevents the fibers from unraveling. Unlike regular carpet that comes on rolls, there is no padding to lay down or install on your floor under the carpet. Everything is already done for you.

Now, there are different types of backing that a carpet tile can have. Most of our products have a cushion backing. This cushion backing also serves as the padding. Other carpet tiles in our inventory have a PVC backing, and lotsofcarpet.com is going green by offering carpet tiles with recycled backing.

Adhesive is not required to install your carpet tile, but is recommended for high-traffic areas such as business offices. This releasable adhesive still allows the carpet tile to be easily pulled up if a single tile needs to be replaced. This is also one of the many great features of carpet tiles, that if a high-traffic area becomes soiled, only one or two pieces need to be replaced, and the floor looks like new again.

Now, we'll show you how to install your new carpet tile floor.

There are a few different installation styles you could choose from. We’ll start with the basic monolithic installation, which is just a fancy word for having all of the carpet tiles face the same direction.

Now, how can you tell which direction a carpet tile faces? Well, every carpet tile has arrows on the back to show which direction it was manufactured in. For this type of installation, we'll simply make sure all of the arrows are pointing in the same direction.

First, start with your clean empty floor. Start in one corner, and lay tile to work your way over to the other side of the room. When you get to the end, you'll probably need to cut a partial tile to fill in the remainder.

Get a straight edge, a carpet knife, and something to mark with. Measure and mark where to cut by holding one side of the carpet against the wall upside down and marking where it touches the other carpet you’ve already laid. Mark the edges first and then line up your straight edge and mark a line down the entire tile.

Finally, cut the tile along this line with your knife. You’ll want to set the carpet tile your cutting on top of some scrap carpet to prevent the blade from cutting into your floor.

Fit the cut piece into the end to form a tight seal with the rest of the floor. In lower traffic areas this seal will be enough to hold the carpet tile in place without an adhesive.

Another installation method is called quarter turn. This is where we turn every other tile a quarter to the right or left. So, if we start with a tile with its arrows facing right, then the next tile would face up, then repeating right, and then up again to finish out the floor.

This gives the floor a nice pattern effect.

Finally, we could also install our floor with a checkerboard pattern, where we use two different colors of carpet, and alternate them like a checkerboard.

We hope this video gives you some insight into carpet tiles and how to install them yourself.

So enjoy your visit at lotsofcarpet.com, and we look forward to working with you.

Thanks, and have a great day!