How to Prepare a Room Before Your Flooring Is Fitted

Empty the room as far as you reasonably can, take up anything loose, and make sure there is clear access from the front door to the room and somewhere to park. Fitting day runs faster and cleaner on an empty floor.

None of it is complicated, but the jobs that get forgotten are always the same ones.

Clear the Room

Small furniture, lamps, boxes, anything on the floor and anything in the bottom of a wardrobe: all of it needs to be somewhere else before the fitters arrive. Emptying drawers and wardrobes makes them far easier to shift on the day.

Beds, wardrobes and sofas are normally moved as part of the job, but confirm that when you book rather than assuming it. Electrical items with connections, like a wall mounted television or a washing machine, are usually best disconnected beforehand.

Decide About Doors First

A new floor is often thicker than the one it replaces, particularly where a thin worn carpet is being replaced with a new carpet and a decent underlay. The door that cleared the old floor may not clear the new one.

Trimming a door is a small job in itself, but it is a different trade and it is much easier to arrange in advance than to discover at five o clock when the room is finished and the door will not shut.

Lift What Can Be Lifted

Taking up your own old carpet saves time and can save money, as long as the gripper, tacks and staples come up with it and the subfloor is left clean. A floor left half stripped with tacks still in it is slower to work with than one left alone.

If you are not sure, leave it. Disposal is usually part of the job and the old floor coming up cleanly matters more than who does it.

Access, Parking and Power

A roll of carpet is long, heavy and awkward, and it has to come through the front door in one piece. Clear the hall, prop the gate open and move the car off the drive if that is where the van needs to be.

Fitters need a socket for tools, and on a cold day they will appreciate the heating being on, because both the adhesive and the floor behave better at room temperature.

Pets, Children and Dust

There will be dust, there are sharp tools out, and doors will be propped open for much of the day. A cat that has never been outside should not find its moment on fitting day.

Shutting pets in a different part of the house, or booking them in elsewhere for the day, is simpler for everybody.

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