For years, carpet has been the standard floor covering but is not an easy do-it-yourself project. Most of the time, carpet install is left to professional installers. Carpet tiles are easier to install than the regular bulky roll of carpet. The pieces come in pre-cut squares, so there’s no need to bother with measuring a room for a piece of rolled carpet, trying to unroll the carpet, trying to install it while keeping it from rolling back up, measuring, cutting, fitting around doors…all the things that are involved with using broadloom carpet. Residential and heaver duty commercial carpet tile is very forgiving. If you mess up, start over. The installation is very simple.

Carpet tile works well in children’s bedrooms, playrooms, family rooms and other areas of the house. Use it in your home office or workout areas in your basement or garage. You can choose from one color that matches an overall color scheme, or from several colors, which allow you to form patterns. With traditional carpet flooring, if you were to spill wine and it stained, at times you would have to replace the entire floor. With carpet tile, you simply replace the stained tile.

• A tape measure and pencil
  
• Tools for removing baseboards and doors, as well as a small saw for “notching” door frames.
• A utility knife (“box cutter”), carpet trimmer tool or other cutting tool.
  
• A chalk line or some string.
  
• An adhesive spreader if your carpet doesn’t have “peel and stick” adhesive.

• Determine the number of tiles that you will need by measuring the length (L) and width (W) of the room to be carpeted. Multiply the width times the length to get the square footage of the room.
• For rooms that are not rectangular, break the room up into smaller rectangles. Multiply the widths times the height for each of the smaller rectangles separately then add them up to get the total square footage of the room

• Remove any old floor coverings.
• Clean the floor; remove dust, debris, or any kind of adhesives.
• Allow to dry completely.
• Put the boxes of carpet tiles in the room. Let the carpet tile boxes sit there for a couple of days (depending on instructions) so that they can get acclimated.

• Find the center of the room; this can be done by snapping chalk lines between the midpoints of the room's opposing walls. This will break the area you are carpeting into four quadrants and you can follow the chalk line with your first row of tiles in each quadrant. Using this technique makes it easier to line up the seams or joints of the tile as you move outward towards any walls.
• Determine your pattern.
• Lay out your carpet tiles on the floor so that they are straight and in the exact location you want.
• Try changing your pattern or direction to explore your design choices.
• You need to first decide what tile will be in the middle of the room as it will be the focal point.

Installation: (On most residential installations we recommend using the 5-spot adhesive method of installation. However, for large commercial or business installations the full spread installation method needs to be used. We have the correct adhesive for both types of installation methods.)

• Pick up a center tile and turn it upside down. Some tiles come with adhesive back patches covered with paper. Simply remove the paper backing and turn your tile over and press it into place. Other tiles require you to apply a daub of adhesive about the size of a quarter on the back of the tile, as shown below, approximately 1 inch from each edge and 1 in the center.
  
  

  Immediately install the tile. Turn the carpet tile over and lay it in place. Be sure to lay the carpet square with all the arrows pointing in the same direction unless you intend to quarter turn every other carpet tile to make a basket weave design.

  ADHESIVE: Releasable adhesive formulated for vinyl back carpet tile must be used to insure proper installation. We can ship this with your order at a very reasonable price. The spread rate for the five spot method is approximately 300 square feet per one can of our spray adhesive, or if using full spread method 180 square feet per can.
  
  At doorways and other areas where the tile is adjoining other types of floor covering, put 3 spots as shown below, and one long line of adhesive where the tile will end.
  
  

  The 5-spot method is acceptable for residential and medium commercial installation.