9781422276853

• Cut or otherwise prepare carpeting, tile, or other building materials for installation • Mix mastic or prepare adhesives (tile, carpeting, and other types of flooring) or, if installing hardwood floors, prepare the nail gun, adhesives, or other joining materials • Arrange flooring according to the design • Install flooring using nails, staples, or adhesives • Fill flooring joints with filler compound and clean up any excess compound (tile installation) • Use a cutting tool to trim excess carpet or linoleum • Apply necessary finishes, such as stains and sealants • Follow applicable building codes during the entire process Some flooring installers also install stone and tile on countertops, walls, and other non-floor surfaces. Here are some of the most popular career paths in flooring installation. Carpet Installers Carpet is a textile floor covering that used to be made of wool, but which is now more often made of synthetic (human-made) fibers such as nylon, polypropylene, or polyester. Carpeting is an extremely popular floor covering because it is more comfortable, warmer, and less expensive than many other types of flooring. It is typically installed in living rooms, family rooms, bedrooms, and hallways, but not usually in bathrooms and kitchens. Carpet installers use a variety of tools such as carpet knives (to cut carpet segments), knee kickers (to position the carpet), power stretchers (to pull the carpet snugly against walls), carpet seam irons (to join the seams on two pieces of carpet), and hammers (to nail down tack strips around the perimeter of the room) to do their jobs. A related profession is carpet tile installer . These workers glue small, modular pieces of carpet to the subfloor. Some people prefer carpet tiles to traditional carpeting because these tiles can be arranged to create attractive and interesting designs and because they are easy to replace if torn, stained, or otherwise damaged.

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