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Flooring Design Dilemma Basements

Carpet tacks - ouch!

3 years ago

Hi- we had carpet installed in our basement. All along the baseboards we can feel sharp little tacks. More troubling, there are tacks where the carpet meets the tile under the bar which is right in the middle

of the floor. We have a baby and I don’t want her crawling down there because it’s pretty sharp (to be honest, I don’t even like walking around down there- you really have to be mindful of the tacks).

My husband wants to rip out the carpet. Our general contractor did work to such a poor standard that I’m tired of redoing major things in the house. Was the carpet installed “wrong” or is this pretty normal? Anything we can do short of ripping it out? I wanted to tile the whole basement and my husband said “no” and now he wants to tile it and I’m saying I can’t take any more renovations 😂!

Featured Answer

PRO

BeverlyFLADeziner

3 years ago

Tap them flat with a hammer and be done with it.

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Comments (11)

jck910
3 years ago
Call the actual installer and get them to your house immediately. No way should you be walking on tacks
User thanked jck910
User
Original Author
3 years ago
Do you know what they would do about it? I have to ask our attorney if we are allowed to reach out to subs because we are in the middle of a settlement. I had to have our hardwood floors leveled on the main floor and that‘s just the tip of the iceberg.
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Use gloves to use the tools, such as cardboard folded into tongs, newspaper, old carpet, which you then capture the plant, avoiding direct contact and saving the gloves for another day. Once gloves have touched nearly any Opuntia cactus, the glochids have lodged into the gloves and the gloves are now compromised.
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wear eye protection and get a hammer and a prybar. pry up the wood and if the nails dont come up with it, gently tap the nails from the side to break their bond with the concrete. Do not pry the nails up directly as you would if they were in wood, as they can pop forcefully and fly through the air causing damage to persons or property. You can also use an angle grinder to cut off the nails so they do not dimple the concrete. patch any voids where chunks of concrete popped out with a cement based floor patch.
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Carpet Tack Strip Exposed
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A carpet installer can restretch this pretty easily to cover the exposed tack strip. If this is a loop carpet you need to be careful cause the exposed edges can lead to raveling so you want to make sure the edges are sealed on the carpet.
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I used a small prybar type tool. My concrete was only 13 yrs old but some nails came out fine, others brought a quarter sized round of concrete out with it, some refused and we had to use a little cutoff saw to remove tops. I did not bother to fill any of the holes and installed laminate. I moved a month later. In new house I think I will fill holes since I do not plan to move any time soon and would be really bummed if not filling caused any problems down the road. When using this little tool there seemed to be no special way to limit damage. Some damaged and some did not.
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jck910
3 years ago
I would think they have to reinstall correctly. Tacks are a safety hazard
PRO
HALLETT & Co.
3 years ago
I'm assuming it is a tack strip, and you have fairly short pile carpet? I know very little about carpet having ripped out much more than I've installed. I think your child is OK, at a couple pounds they are unlikely to compress the carpet enough to feel the tack strips, versus you walking around with all your weight on two feet... Hopefully carpet experts will chime in to whether there are different kinds of tack strips
User thanked HALLETT & Co.
User
Original Author
3 years ago
Hi Hallett- I think it’s short pile carpet. We were shown 2 sample boards and all of the carpet was the same pile. It’s Shaw carpet (If that means anything).
Timothy Winzell
3 years ago
The tacks in tack strip angle away from the carpeted area. Since people rarely walk within 2" of baseboard, feeling the tacks is usually reserved for doorways. One can quite easily take a hammer and gently bend the tacks down until they pose no hazard.
User thanked Timothy Winzell
User
Original Author
3 years ago
Sounds like we can hammer them down ourselves. We will try that.
PRO
GN Builders L.L.C
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Call your installer and have him change tacking strips at the transition points. The installer supposes to use the right size tacking strips when it comes to stairs, flooring transitions, or certain carpet thicknesses.

Most just use "standard" tacking strips for all carpets and all areas. More experienced installers will switch to different size tacking strips in traffic area locations to avoid callbacks.

Bending down tacking strips is not a good idea, just have them return and change to the right size tacking strip, it's not a big deal.
User
Original Author
3 years ago
Gotcha GN. Thanks. Hopefully the sub will come back since we are terminating the relationship with the GC (who basically didn’t supervise any of the subs- I had to go through the house and send them video of things like the leaky roof to get things addressed. It was a complete nightmar).
PRO
GN Builders L.L.C
3 years ago
Sorry to hear that, I hope you get everything straightened out.

Good luck!
User thanked GN Builders L.L.C

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