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Got a job with a pentagon-shaped den, and I'm torn on how to handle the cuts. | Carpet Installers - Discusd

Got a job with a pentagon-shaped den, and I'm torn on how to handle the cuts.

One side of me says to make a paper template for accuracy, but the other side thinks eyeballing it with extra seam allowance is faster. I've had both methods fail on me before, lol, like when a template shifted or I cut too short. It's a big room with expensive material, so I don't want to mess up. What do you all usually do in these situations?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlesharris7mo ago

Honestly I'm going hard on the side of eyeballing it here. Every time I've made a perfect paper template, the real room laughs at me. Walls are never straight and floors aren't level, so that perfect cut is wrong the second you put it against the baseboard. That expensive material you're scared of wasting? A rigid template doesn't let you adjust for a bulge in the drywall or a thicker pile in the carpet. I'd rather have that extra inch to play with and trim it slow in place. A shifting template is a total loss, but a too-big piece is still salvageable.

claireg897mo ago

What do you do when you hit a really bad corner, like a wall that bows out a full inch in the middle? I've had to cut a gentle curve into the back of a plank before, following the wall's shape, because just adding an inch all around would leave a huge gap at the ends. It's a pain but you can't fight the room.

abbyw197mo ago

Yeah, what Charles said about walls never being straight... that stuck with me. I read a tip from a flooring installer once that said to never trust the angles on paper for a big room. His trick was to measure each wall, mark it right on the back of the material with a chalk line, and add a good two inches all around. That way you're drawing the real, weird shape of the room, not the perfect one. You still get to trim it in place, but you're not just guessing... you're using the room itself as the guide.