Carpet squares in the game room

jehuie

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I picked up a bunch of carpet squares for cheap from CL today, here: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/mat/3407198750.html

I figure I can carpet the whole game room with this stuff for less than the price of a good meal out with my wife. Plus, since they are 3 foot squares I won't be required to move the games all out to unroll a big unwieldy carpet. I can just move the games over, put the squares down, and then move games back on top of them as I go.

Anyone have any tips for installing these things? I've never done it before.

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Nice commercial look there. Should be a snap to install. I've never installed carpet, just wood & tile. My only advice is to use fresh knife blades and a good straight edge for cutting the edge pieces to fit.
 
Make sure the floor is very clean. Try sticking one down and see how is sticks. If it does not stick good There is some stuff you can buy that you paint on the floor to make them stick better, cannot rember the name but I bought it a home depot of lowes. Be carefull when you move the games that you fo not pull the tile up. I used some of these in a hall way and once they were stuck down I did not have any problems with them.
 
Yeah, but if they peel up I should be able to just re-stick them. Using some extra adhesive if necessary. I picked up enough extra that I can keep them on hand in case any of them get damaged. That way I can replace them later.

I haven't calculated how they will fall yet when I lay them out. What happens if it turns out that one wall has just a very narrow strip to finish it off? Would I be better off to cut the first row down some in order to make the final row not turn out to be so narrow? Or does it really matter?
 
Yeah, but if they peel up I should be able to just re-stick them. Using some extra adhesive if necessary. I picked up enough extra that I can keep them on hand in case any of them get damaged. That way I can replace them later.

I haven't calculated how they will fall yet when I lay them out. What happens if it turns out that one wall has just a very narrow strip to finish it off? Would I be better off to cut the first row down some in order to make the final row not turn out to be so narrow? Or does it really matter?


When I did it I started in the middle. That way when you get to the outside what ever strips you have to cut will be the same on both ends.
 
I installed mine as floating flooring. For high traffic areas I used double sided carpet tape from lowes. Carpet and tape are pretty easy to remove. If you install wall to wall they should not move.
 
I installed mine as floating flooring. For high traffic areas I used double sided carpet tape from lowes. Carpet and tape are pretty easy to remove. If you install wall to wall they should not move.

Cool, that's a great idea about the tape. I didn't know they made tape for that purpose. I'll check it out. I also like the idea of starting the carpeting in the middle of the room but I'm not sure how I would get it straight then. Plus that would mean I would have to completely empty the room most likely before starting.
 
Cool, that's a great idea about the tape. I didn't know they made tape for that purpose. I'll check it out. I also like the idea of starting the carpeting in the middle of the room but I'm not sure how I would get it straight then. Plus that would mean I would have to completely empty the room most likely before starting.


Starting in the middle would almost need the room empty. I just found the middel of the room and made a x . Then you just start with 4 squares and put the corners in the x and go from there, if you line up the squares off the other they will be pretty close to straight.
 
I finally got them all in. Thy look so much better than my old linoleum and carpet combo floor that was all thrashed. Man it was a lot more work (and cost) than I expected though. The floor turned out to not be even and I had to put down a bunch of 8x4 sheets of 1/2" thick particle board in most of the room. It sucked. The first day I brought home a piece to test it, they were about $10 each. Then when I went down a couple days later they were up to almost $15 each. Crap ended up costing me over $100. Plus glue. Plus staples to hold down the particle board. Plus new blinds.

And moving the games around (rather than out into the rain) during all this took its toll on me. I'm sore all over. I think I pulled every muscle in my body. I'm getting old. Here's some pics during the progress:

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Looks good. The wood you used for the floor looks like MDF, I hope I am wrong since when that stuff gets wet it turns to mush. I just looked up the price of OSB is 1/2" and it looks like it is $15 a sheet so about the same as you payed the second time.
 
The squares look great, and will really improve the look and feel of your gameroom.

If I can make 1 recommendation, it would be to look into getting these for your machines: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...Id=-1&keyword=furnature+sliders&storeId=10051

They are a little pricey, but they fit perfectly over the adjustable feet of my machines and make moving games a ton easier. It will also help to keep your feet from catching on an edge of your squares. I put these on every machine I can, and DREAD moving the machines that do not have them... Make sure you get the concave ones (note the model number), as they will actually "cup" the feet of your machines and stay put even if the machine is lifted slightly.
 
Looks good. The wood you used for the floor looks like MDF, I hope I am wrong since when that stuff gets wet it turns to mush. I just looked up the price of OSB is 1/2" and it looks like it is $15 a sheet so about the same as you payed the second time.

Yeah I actually looked at OSB first but they didn't have any 1/2" available. I probably should have hunted around for some just in case. But...there's no plumbing in that room so a leak is unlikely unless the roof springs a leak or something. And the carpet squares are water proof with their plastic or rubber backs so a small leak is unlikely to damage much. It could drip down around the edges I'm sure but I think it will be ok. Hopefully I won't be back on here showing how I had to rip everything back out to fix it. :)

And yes, I do have a few of those carpet sliders. They are especially useful on the pins. But they were not very helpful in this case since I had to move games onto all the uneven surfaces before I got everything leveled. It wasn't really that bad since I did it over several weekends.
 
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