Carpet is the third largest investment people make when they own a home. Replacing the carpet in a travel trailer isn’t as costly, but you want to do it right the first time. Even in a travel trailer, you want the carpet to express your personality. This doesn’t mean you need to choose crazy colors or patterns. Your personality shows in the appearance of the carpet; worn, stained and old carpet makes an impression on people you may not realize. When it comes to the tight quarters of a travel trailer spend the money to replace the carpet; don’t try and fix it. The lifespan of carpet is, on average, 10 years.
Rip the old carpet up. Use a utility knife to cut the carpet into manageable pieces that you can grab and pull up off the floor of the travel trailer.
Select a carpet that isn’t loud in color or design. The travel trailer is a small space that will get lots of traffic. You need to shop for endurance and lifespan, not color and design. Measure the dimensions of the travel trailer interior and score a pattern on the carpet in white chalk that matches these dimensions. Cut out the pattern with a utility knife and then roll up the cut piece of carpet.
Take an 18-inch crowbar and loosen the tack strips along the walls of the travel trailer. Some travel trailers use indoor-outdoor carpet. Indoor-outdoor carpet doesn’t require tack strips. Glue and tape are used. The tack strips hold the carpet in place by providing traction for the carpet to ebb and flow as people walk on it. Be careful when removing the tack strips; use safety goggles and leather gloves. A tack strip is a one-inch strip of wood with metal tacks facing up to hold the carpet in place after stretching.
Roll the carpet over the travel trailer floor. Use a knee kicker to stretch the carpet so that you can fasten it to the tack strip along the wall of the travel trailer. To use the knee kicker, you kneel on the carpet, place the tool about four inches away from the tack strip under the carpet and bang your knee into the pedal of the knee kicker. Stretching the carpet over the tack strip requires more than one use of the knee kicker. Before hammering the tack strip and carpet in place make sure you have stretched the carpet as much as the material allows.
Run the knee kicker around the travel trailer walls stretching the carpet and attaching it to the tacks in the floor. When the carpet is tight, without any wrinkles and you can’t move it with your hand, hammer down all of the metal tacks to complete the installation of your new carpet.
