How to Install Carpet Tiles

Allow carpet tiles to acclimate to the room overnight.

Install carpet tiles on a clean, flat surface. Most carpet tiles can be installed on top of subfloors or hard flooring, but not on top of other carpet.

Locate the center of the floor. This can be done with chalk lines. Pull the chalk line from one corner of the room to the corner diagonal from it. Snap the line. Repeat with the other two corners. You will have a giant "X" running over the floor. Find the center of two opposite walls, and run a chalk line between them. Repeat with the remaining two walls. You now have four lines on the floor and a clearly marked center.

Apply carpet tape around the perimeter of the room and over the chalk lines you created earlier. You might want to set the tape slightly askew from the lines to make sure you can still see your center point. Do not remove the paper backing until you place the tiles on the floor and are sure you like where they wind up.

Place carpet tiles along the chalk lines running from center wall to center wall. You will actually lay the tiles next to the lines, not on top of them. Make sure the tiles fit snugly together.

Make sure the nap or pattern of the tiles is all going in the same direction. Some brands of tiles may have arrows on the back to assist you. If yours do, and you are using a solid color, or a repeating pattern, make sure all of the arrows face the same way. If you do not have these arrows, you might want to add them yourself to assist you when you lay the tiles.

Cut the tiles to fit at the edges. Place a tile face down under the last whole tile in the row and lay it snugly against the wall. Mark the back of the tile where the previous tile ends on it. Lay the new tile on a piece of cardboard and cut it with a carpet knife. Run the knife next to the carpenter's square to ensure a straight edge. Cut the carpet with several swipes of the knife, rather than trying to cut through it all at once. Place the cut tile on the floor Repeat with the other three points of the lines.

Make sure you like where the tiles are. If you like the tile placement, remove the paper backing from the carpet tape under the tiles and stick them in place.

Begin filling in the quadrants created by the carpet tiles you have already laid. Work from the center of the room to the corners. Use the same process as in Step 7 to cut tiles for the edges.