How to Install Carpet on a Concrete Slab

Place a level over the concrete floor and move it around. Make a mark on the floor whenever you notice a high or low area. Once you are done, apply leveling compound to the low area using your trowel. Smooth off the area and use your level again to ensure it is now even. For any high areas, sand down the concrete using a block sander. Be sure to wear a mask when you do this, as the dust will get everywhere.

Wait for the leveling compound to dry, according to the directions on the tub. Sweep the area clean of debris, then mop the concrete to remove any remaining dust and dirt.

Place your cement tackless strips around the perimeter of the slab with the tacks pointing toward the wall. Leave a one-quarter-inch gap between the wall edge and the strip. Cement tackless strips come with cement nails already driven into the strip at the correct angle. Hit these squarely with your hammer to drive them into the concrete.

Cut your carpet padding with your utility knife so that the padding will fit into the area within the tackless strips. Apply padding adhesive to the concrete floor over an area a few inches inside of the tackless strips and over any area where two padding pieces will have to seam together. Press the padding into the adhesive to lock it into place.

Move the carpeting onto the concrete slab and roll it out. Cut the carpet so it will fit on your slab by running your utility knife over the back side of the carpeting. Leave a few inches of excess carpeting running up each wall in the room. If you need to install multiple pieces of carpeting, cut the second one so that it overlaps the first by about 6 inches.

Place a piece of scrap plywood under the middle of each seam in the carpet. Cut through both pieces with your utility knife to ensure that you get an even seam. Roll the two carpet pieces back from the seam area, and place a stretch of seaming tape on the padding where the seam will go. Run a hot seaming iron over the tape to activate it, then press the two pieces of carpet together onto the tape.

Place your knee kicker about an inch from the tackless strip in one corner of the slab. Hit the kicker with your knee to push the carpet toward the wall and lock it onto the tackless strip. Do this along the entire stretch of two adjacent walls.

Place the base of your power stretcher on one of the walls that you used the knee kicker on. Place a piece of excess carpet between the bottom of the stretcher and the wall, to protect the wall. Place the head of the stretcher about 6 inches from the opposite wall. Push down on the level until it locks into place. This will stretch the carpet and attach it to the tackless strips. Release the handle and move the stretch to another area of the carpet along the same wall. Repeat this whole process along the length of the two remaining walls, until the entire carpet is stretched.

Cut a slit in the excess carpet running up the wall in the middle of one wall. Place your wall trimmer into that slit and push it down and back so the fence on the back of the trimmer is resting against the bottom and the wall and the slit in the carpet is sitting against the trimmer's blade. Slide the trimmer along the wall to remove the excess carpet. Shove the remaining lip of carpet into the gap between the tackless strip and the wall using your stair tool. Do this for all four walls.