A Cheap Carpet Secret

If you want cheap carpet that you can easily install yourself, I have a secret for you. I once carpeted a large bedroom for a total cost of about $12. Yes, you read that right, and yes, the carpet was new carpet. How did I do it? With carpet samples.

In that case I bought them for 25 cent apiece at a closeout sale, and it took 36 squares of carpet to finish the room. The only other supplies were the staples, which cost maybe a dollar. Today you might pay a dollar each for squares of carpet, although I found them available for half that just a few weeks ago. In any case, this is cheap, cheap, cheap.

It is unusual, though, and you may have to consider the resale value of your home. I did the bedroom in a rental mobile home this way, but normally, you will want to save this trick for areas like basements, playrooms, and maybe a kids clubhouse. It isn't that it looks so bad - actually it looks just fine if you mix the various colored squares of carpet well.

For a children's playroom, the multi-colored floor is perfect, and if a spill stains one of the carpet squares, you can easily pull it up and install a new one in its place. This is another advantage of carpeting a room this way.

Cheap Carpet Tools

All you will need to carpet a room with carpet samples or squares is a carpet knife and a staple gun. Use 5/8-inch staples. Start at any corner, and just put the piece in place and staple it in two or three places on each side. If you wiggle the stapler head down between the fibers, or between the border and the fibers, the staples will usually be well-hidden.

If you are carpeting a basement floor, you can use carpet tape instead of staples. In either case, this is best done where padding isn't too important, although you can use padding too, if you don't mind the complications. Without it, this is pure simplicity.

You may want to lay out the pieces first, to decide where each will go. As you come to walls, heating registers, and other obstacles, you can easily cut the pieces to fit. If you make a mistake, it cost you perhaps a dollar. Just start over with a new piece.

Carpet samples range in size, but are usually at least 18 by 18 inches. Even at a dollar, this makes it less than 50 cents per square foot to carpet a room. That's cheap carpet! Using pieces that are all the same size is the easiest way to go. Estimate how many pieces you'll need, then call around to find a carpet store that has enough leftover samples for sale.