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I used to swear by tack strips for every room, but a job in a 1930s house last month changed my thinking completely.
The old hardwood floors were so uneven that tack strips kept popping loose, so I tried glue-down carpet for the first time and it laid perfectly flat, has anyone else had better luck with glue in old houses?
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tylerj2220d ago
Did you try the double-sided tape method too or just straight glue? I've been in a ton of old houses where the subfloor is basically a warped mess, and tack strips are a total gamble. @the_emery is spot on about glue being the way to go in those old builds. I learned that lesson the hard way on a 1940s bungalow where the floor had settled so bad the strips just popped off the concrete. The glue holds everything down way better, especially if you get a good moisture barrier underneath. Just make sure you let the floor acclimate a full 48 hours before you start or the glue can bubble up from temp changes.
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wendy62820d ago
@tylerj22 you said "glue holds everything down way better" and I just don't see it that way honestly. I've been doing floors for about 15 years now and old houses with uneven subfloors are exactly where glue fails me every time. The problem with glue in those old builds is the wood shifts with humidity and the glue creates a hard bond that can actually crack the floorboards or cause the carpet to buckle in weird ways. Tack strips give the carpet some flex to move with the house settling, which is what you need in a 1930s place that's still finding its footing. Maybe if the subfloor is concrete it works different, but on old wood I'll take the pop-off risk over a glued-down mess that I have to scrape off later.
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