While laying laminate or vinyl flooring over carpet can be done, it is only recommended for floors with low-pile carpets. If you must install your flooring on a high-pile carpet, make sure to use an underlayment like plywood, and importantly, go for the thinnest sheets possible.
You can install a temporary flooring of vinyl planks over your existing carpet if you don't want to go through the hassle of removing it and scraping off the glue.
At SelecTech, we're often asked if our floating floors can be installed over carpet. While there are several considerations, the short answer is yes! Ideal for many situations, installing interlocking flooring from FreeStyle proves to be an effective, time-saving, money-saving way to update your space.
You should not have problems if you wish to lay your wood flooring over carpet, as long as the carpet is fairly flat. This will prevent chances of having uneven surface to walk on because the foam padding of the carpet will cause your hardwood floor to spring or bounce.
Yes, you can install your laminate or vinyl planks without necessarily having to remove an existing carpet.
Plywood is an excellent option as a temporary floor to install over carpet floors. While installing the plywood sheets over the plush carpet, please place them in the opposite direction the bottom is. Tape the plywood sheets together from the seam if you are using more than one sheet.
Installing laminate flooring over carpet is not recommended in most installation situations. Since carpet is usually plush and soft, your laminate flooring would not have the support it needs to keep the locking system sturdy.
A rug of the right size will cover most, if not all, of the carpet beneath, completely transforming a room. If you're left with a perimeter of old carpeting showing around the rug, buy carpet remnants, cut them to size, and attach them with carpet binding and seam tape, in effect creating a custom-fit area rug.
Thus, it goes down best over concrete, wood, linoleum or any other hard surface. Installation over soft surfaces, such as carpeting, is not recommended by the manufacturer and will void the manufacturer's warranty. However, that's not to say that it can't be done — at least in some instances.
As carpet underlays are generally thicker than what is needed, reaching up to 10 mm in thickness, it would not be advisable to install vinyl over it. Having this thick underlay under the vinyl will make the flooring unstable.
Cost to Replace Carpet with Hardwood, Laminate or Tile
Removing carpet costs $1 to $1.50 per square foot. You can expect to pay from $4 to $23.50 per square foot to replace carpet with hardwood, laminate or tile.
The cost of carpet is generally much cheaper than the cost of laminate flooring, but laminate flooring has the advantage of being longer-lasting, easier to clean, and less likely to suffer weather damage.
3. Can you lay carpet tiles over existing carpet? It is recommended to remove the old carpet before laying carpet tiles. If the old carpet is stuck to the floor and is difficult to remove, carpet tiles can be laid over it, but there could be several problems.
We recommend not laying new carpet over high-pile, plush, shag, soft, or unevenly worn carpet to avoid these hazards. The best type of carpet to do this with is low-pile carpeting.
It's similar to wall-to-wall berber carpets (if they are glued down) because it is moderately firm and has a relatively short pile. Carpet tiles and berber carpets are still too soft to leave under laminate flooring. They will just create too much flexing and bending of the floor.
It may seem obvious that you wouldn't want to install peel and stick laminate flooring over carpet, nor would you want to install peel and stick vinyl flooring over carpet. Those flooring types are suitable for hard, smooth, solid surfaces like wood or concrete.
Using a carpet pad or plywood base over the existing carpet can create an even base for new carpet tiles. Existing low-pile carpet can serve as the carpet pad. Choose carpet tiles that interlock into place. Or use special carpeting metal glue-less clips that save time and can be rearranged when placing on the floor.
While the indoor/outdoor carpet options frequently found in hardware stores are durable and inexpensive, they are often plain-looking and don't offer many decorating or design options. However, you it is possible to improve the appearance of indoor/outdoor carpets with paint.