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How to Repair Berber Carpet

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"How to Repair Berber Carpet"
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Repairing Berber carpet is not an easy task but it is possible to achieve a reasonably successful and long lasting repair with a little bit of time and patience. Berber carpet is woven out of lots of loops, usually the loops differ in size to give the carpet texture. Sometimes a shoe buckle or a pets claw can pull one of these loops so you are left with a large thread sitting on top of the carpet that could well get pulled again and end up larger than it is already.

Repairing a pull in the carpet.

The best tool for the job is a simple crotchet hook. Look at the position of the pull in the carpet and gauge which line of loops are closest to the pulled thread. You will be able to insert the crotchet hook into each of the loops adjacent to the pulled thread. Take hold of the thread and insert the crotchet hook into the nearest loop, using the crotchet hook pick up the pulled thread and run it through the loop. You are weaving the pulled thread back into the carpet using the crotchet hook.

When you have woven most of the pulled thread back into the loops in the Berber carpet you need to make sure that the end doesn't work its way loose again so it needs to be secured. Take a tube of super glue or clear bonding and add a spot to the end of the pulled thread so that it is fastened down securely. The pulled thread in the carpet is now repaired.

Repairing a larger area of damaged carpet.

Larger areas are far more difficult to repair. The only way to tackle the task is to remove the damaged area and replace it with another square of the same Berber carpet. Many of us tend to save the odd off cuts that are left behind by the carpet fitter so you may be lucky enough to be able to lay your hands on a piece large enough to use for the patch. Take a rule and a pencil and draw a small square around the area of damaged carpet. Take a Stanley knife (always make sure that children are well out of the way when you are using a Stanley blade ) and run it along the lines of the square that you have just marked out. You want to cut through the Berber carpet but you are trying to avoid cutting through the underlay.

When you notice that you have cut through the square then remove it and lay it on top of your carpet off cut to use as a template to cut out the new square that you are going to lay. Look at the way the carpet is woven and make sure that you lay the patch the same way. Now you are ready to stick the patch of carpet into place. You can secure the patch into place using double sided tape or you can use super glue, both methods will work. When the patch is in place then you will need to make sure that it is not vacuumed over for a day or so to let the bonding dry completely. A larger patch will always show but the more you tread and vacuum it the less conspicuous it will become.

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