Are you going to install a carpet with every essential tool on hand other than a carpet seam iron? Can you use your clothes iron rather than buying a new seaming iron from the nearest shop? Then I will explain, how to seam carpet with a clothes iron based on my experience.
Here is the step-by-step process that I followed to use a regular clothing iron in a pinch to seaming carpets.
Carpet installation is, of course, a serious task as it adds elegance to flooring if it is done neatly. However, I was about to ask for professionals’ help to get it done properly regardless of the budget.
But I’m a DIYer and was looking for DIY tips to accomplish the job by myself. So, I just needed a few tools including a regular clothes iron to get the carpet installed.
It was tough and more challenging when I decided to seam the carpet using a regular iron when installing it. Because I have to make sure that carpet seams were invisible after the installation without leaving it noticeable.
Otherwise, I had to be careful as a regular clothes iron can easily burn carpet edges. First things first, you have to take care of a few things before jumping into the clothes iron.
How to prepare carpet seams?
First, I made sure that the carpet had straight and precise cut into the desired sizes to create neat seams. This step ensured that there would be no gaps in between seams when they bonded and overlapped on top of the seam tape.
I created a uniform and straight cutting line on the carpet backing of pieces with the help of a marker. I cut it through the line with help of a sharp knife or a good carpet knife to create neat edges on the pieces.
Tools that I needed to seam the carpet
Clothes iron
Carpet seam roller
Carpet seam sealer
Thin white towel
Vacuum
You may have got all the tools except the carpet seam roller or you may haven’t heard of it. I recommend you invest a few dollars in it and you will not regret buying this handy tool.
What are the Things I Love about Carpet Seam Roller?
- It has a wide head which covers a larger area of both edges of pieces
- Its die-cast handle is easy to hold
- It is a lightweight tool
- It ensures transferring hot melt to carpet backing
- Capable of blending the carpeting yarn to hide seams
- It moves back and forth along the seams without changing the position of the carpet backing
- Durability is guaranteed
What I Don’t Like about Carpet Seam Roller?
However, it doesn’t work well on some specific types of carpeting. Because it makes the carpeting fabrics fluff so as the carpet seams.
How much does it cost?
It is definitely worth the price and affordable with a few dollars in your hand.
If you want to buy it from Amazon
The process that I used to seam the edges using a clothing iron
Positioning the carpet pieces against seaming tape
I decided to use a carpet seam sealer to seal the primary and secondary layers of carpeting backing. Because moisture or heat of the iron tends them to separate during the installation process.
Then I kept the two pieces side-by-side ensuring the pile of each piece is facing the same direction. I grabbed the seam tape and lay it halfway underneath each edge of the piece. You have to be careful enough not to leave any gaps between the seams connected to each other.
I made sure that the adhesive of seam tape is facing against the edges.
Use clothes iron to iron the seams to seal them
I was going to use the clothes iron and made sure it was filled with enough amount of water required. Then I let the clothes iron heat and set its temperature to a steam setting which was the highest.
I let the towel gets soaked to make it dip and made sure to remove extra water from it. Then I laid it down underneath both pieces and top the seaming tape where the seaming gets started.
Now you have to steam iron the towel while moving along the entire area of seaming tape. I made sure to let the steam iron rest in a particular position when I needed to start ironing.
I recommend you apply a little pressure on the steam iron directly for a few seconds. So, the steam iron allows the wet towel to get heat and hot enough to melt the glue. Then the heat of steam iron can pass down to the adhesive to melt the glue.
Joining the seams along with the seaming tape
Now you have to attach the two edges of each piece of carpet together without leaving a gap. Also, I made sure the carpet backing of each piece was properly touched to each other on top of the tape.
Now I recommend using a carpet seam roller to roll over the seams directly. So that it made the seams invisible.
I decided to flip the towel to prevent it from unnecessary burns if needed. Then I began to use the clothes iron again to head down a small length of area on the seaming tape.
I advise you to be careful not to melt the carpet and prevent the carpet backing from overheating.
I repeated the steps to heat the adhesive to complete joining two seams and you are done!
How to seam carpet with a clothes iron – Final Thoughts
There will be some occurrences where you need to do carpet installation by yourself in your home. Sometimes you have to repair patches where cleaning products cause damage to the carpet in your home leaving stains.
If you have decided to choose a carpet seam iron just to do small repairs on the carpet or rug then you have to reconsider it for sure. Even you might wonder whether a regular iron can do a better job as same a carpet steam iron.
A regular iron will cost around only a few dollars while a carpet seam iron costs much comparatively. So, I had to think twice before buying a carpet seaming iron in a pinch. Because my household clothes iron could easily do a fair job to seam the carpet as well as ironing clothes.
There was always another disadvantage when I decided to buy a carpet seaming iron. I knew I would no longer use it after I have done installing the carpet or the repair, unlike my clothes iron.
So do not hesitate to use your clothes iron to seam carpet rather than using a seam iron when needed.
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