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When I was a helper, my teacher would make me use a heavy pcs of cardboard against the base board while I was putting down tackstrip. It helped soften the blow when I got wild, and saved him alot of time not having to fix dents.
Don, your post reminds me of some stairs I did a couple years ago. I have shown these before. Some may not have seen this rather extreme fix for a problem carpet combined with problem stairs.
My 1st problem was the carpet. A non forgiving Karastan berber with a Karaloc back......... it no stretchy at all. There were 4 seperate flights of 6 steps to be done, with one landing.
To add to the problem was the walls were not parallel on any of them..... the worst set of steps had over 7/16 bow in them as I recall.
Photo #1 is the bow on one set of steps.
The second photo shows wedges I installed as a tacking surface for the riser.......... These stairs had to be turned and tacked because of the bowing. Row cutting or straight edging this carpet will not work because of the bowing. Without this plywood wedge installed, the carpet cannot be pulled tight without an unsightly pucker on both sides of the riser. Skylight was directly overhead too, making small puckers look large.
You will also note a piece of standard tackstrip under the top edge of the commercial strip on the riser. (I could have used something different, but this was quick and handy to use for a shim.)This was done to put the tackless at an angle matching the wedge. This gives the carpet full contact to the tackstrip, and at the same angle as the resulting waterfall.
Anyone who has worked with a Karaloc backed carpet will understand the use of commercial strip on these steps.
Last one is a finished run.
Hope it all makes sense. If not, ask away.
i never understood why people would waterfall steps with a nose on it, i would have capped and banned it, but i guess different parts of the country do different things, they still look nice though..
Same goes here al. You aren't the first one to mention it. It extremely rare over here to see anything but waterfall steps........ It must just be a regional thing. In the last 10 years, can recall one set that was not waterfalled.... and that one was one month ago with a woven runner.
Tackstrip on the sides and wedge are not visible? How did you tuck the wedge if there is not tackstrip there - no no do not say turn an tack
The carpet was turned and tacked partially because of the bowing. Cant row cut it since it will not stretch in widthe. Tackstrip would serve no purpose as far as I know, with this carpet. I don't think this type of carpet will stretch 1/4 inch in a 12 foot width using a power stretcher, because of the backing type. It's a woven Karastan berber with Karaloc backing. You would really need to have worked with this particular carpet to understand why I turned and tacked. It is the only way I could have made a nice clean edge. I used an Anchorite tool and wire nails, not an electric tacker........ not a lightning fast way of doing stairs.
It's pretty hard to find a reason to hand tack stairs. Stripping the sides is my usual way like everyone else.
I added this close up of the carpet style and the finished edge if this helps explain my reasoning a bit better.
i never understood why people would waterfall steps with a nose on it, i would have capped and banned it, but i guess different parts of the country do different things, they still look nice though..
yea over here in the uk its a custom to only cap and band bull noses in general!
I personally think this is the best look.
When removing tack strip that is underneath baseboard , use a reciprocating saw under the tack strip and cut the nails off. This works extremely well and does not mark up the base boards.
Don Monfils
When removing tack strip that is underneath baseboard , use a reciprocating saw under the tack strip and cut the nails off. This works extremely well and does not mark up the base boards.
Don Monfils
That's a keeper, Don................ How come I never thought of it.
Hey, I have a new one.
Ever have a lip under a railing or a step where you needed to install some strip.............. but there ain't no room to swing a hammer? Try a C-clamp to 'drive' the nail in..... It's slow, but sometimes the area is too tight clearance wise, or if the lip is too bouncy to rattle tat tat a nail in with a short swing in a tight area.
...dj
...dj
