A carpet repair patch is among the most common carpet repair that we do. There are so many little things that can cause damage to a carpet. Often, the small damaged area doesn’t justify replacing the whole room of carpet. Still, it causes enough unsightly damage that you want it fixed.
Some examples of common damage to carpet that a patch can fix are:
- Your pet digging a hole in your carpet
- Hot embers popping out of the fireplace
- A sharp edge on a piece of furniture that catches as you drag it
- Etc.
Regardless of the cause of the carpet damage, the good news is that carpet repair patches are often a good fix.
Patching Damaged Carpet
Finding the Matching Carpet to Take a Patch From
In order to successfully patch carpet, you need to have a matching piece of carpet available. This can come from a few different places.
A Leftover Carpet Remnant
Often times a matching carpet remnant is left behind at the time of the original carpet installation. This extra carpet piece is perfect for pulling a patch from. It’s also why many good installers leave small areas of carpeting behind.
Otherwise, if no matching carpet is available, a matching patch will have to be taken from elsewhere to replace the damaged piece.
Taking a Matching Patch From Existing Carpet
When a carpet remnant isn’t available, we like to cut the carpet patch from a discrete area. Often a good spot is the carpet behind a closet door. Sometimes carpet under a low shelf where it isn’t highly visible works as well.
There is a caveat with this approach. Usually this piece of carpet hasn’t seen much foot traffic compared to the area around the damaged section.
Different Carpet Wear Levels
There is one downside when you patch carpet from a low traffic area to a high traffic area. When carpet has been used for a while, often you’ll have visible differences.
The carpet fibers of the new patch compared to the surrounding carpet may be different. This can result in a not entirely uniform appearance.
Yes, the patch is going to look better than the damaged area. It might not be entirely uniform in color or pile height, however.
Another Potential Source for the Carpet Patch
Sometimes, if we are also stretching the carpet, we will have an adequate amount of excess carpet left over. A small section of carpet is usually left over. This comes from where we trimmed off the edges with a utility knife after stretching.
This isn’t always an option. It depends a lot on the size of the patch to be installed. It also depends on what the edge of the hole looks like.
How We Patch Carpet
At a high level, we patch carpet by cutting out the damaged area with a very sharp razor blade. From there, we cut a matching patch of the exact size.
Next, we use a special tool called a Koolglide iron. This tool activates a magnetic carpet tape from beneath the carpet.
This tool doesn’t leave a mess on the carpet or carpet pad. Old irons and double sided tape and glue often left a mess. It also holds tighter, making a permanent carpet repair.
Different Carpet Repair Patching Sizes and Shapes
The art in carpet repair patches definitely comes to dealing with irregular shapes and sizes.
Cookie Cutter Carpet Repair Tool for Small Carpet Repairs
Small patches can often be done with what we call a “cookie cutter” tool.
This is a 4” circular tool that looks a whole lot like a cookie cutter. The key difference is that it contains a razor blade.
The tool is rotated in a twisting motion to pull out a perfect 4” circle of matched carpet. This can then be grafted into another perfectly cut circle around the small damaged area requiring a carpet repair patch.
Larger Carpet Repairs
Larger carpet repair patches usually involve cutting out a rectangle or square around the damaged area. Next, the carpet repair patch is cut from a matched piece of carpet.
Last, we use the magnetic tape and tool mentioned before. When done, the patch is permanently affixed back into the area where the damaged carpet was pulled from.
This could apply to any damage larger than a few inches, to a patching a damaged area multiple feet across.
Other Carpet Repairs
Of course, carpet repair patches are only one segment of the overall category of carpet stretching and repairs. Regardless of your needs, we’d be happy to chat with you about your project and provide a quote. We service the Greater Denver Area.
Give us a call or book an appointment online.
Or Call: 1-720-233-0761