How to Choose The Right Carpet Tape at Home

Carpets serve both an aesthetic and practical use at home. Buying one can be considered an investment as prices of carpets range from affordable to eye-watery expensive. However, not investing in the right carpet tape can also pose a safety hazard for your kids at home.

What is a Carpet Tape For?

A carpet tape bonds to your carpet and secures it to the surface directly below it. It is a thicker and stronger double-sided tape that prevents your carpets from slipping or sliding. It prevents carpets and rugs from slipping, sliding and curling. Recent statistics show that most accidents at homes are caused by slips due to rugs and carpets.

Double-sided carpet tapes are ideal for holding rugs, carpets, and stair treads in place, especially on wood laminate floors. Premium carpet tapes can work for both indoor and outdoor environments. At home, it is necessary to secure your mats using carpet tape to improve overall safety, especially for kids, the elderly, and even your pets.

How to Choose the Right Double-sided Carpet Tape?

The best double-sided carpet tape should be residue-free, surface-safe, wood-safe, textile-compatible, heavy-duty, has high tensile strength, and has high shear stress resistance.

There are a lot of types of carpet tapes on the market today; however, there are essential pointers to look for whenever choosing the right carpet seam tape:

• Residue-free, Surface-safe, Wood-safe. The double-sided carpet tape that you should select should not ruin your carpet, rug, treads, or hardwood floor surfaces upon removal. It would help if you also avoid those that leave a sticky residue on your floor or carpet. 

Also, there are carpet tapes that may damage the surface of wooden floorings. Purchase a silicone-based carpet seam tape that is rated as residue-free, surface-safe, and wood-safe. Silicone-based adhesive tapes do not leave a sticky residue, nor will they ruin your floor. You can find the XFasten Residue-Free Carpet Tape here.

• Textile-compatibility. Your carpet rug tape must be able to adhere to various types of setups. You may want to secure a carpet on top of your wooden flooring. Or, you may wish to your area rug on top of a wall-to-wall carpet flooring. 

Lastly, you may want to use the carpet tape on a set of stair treads or floor mats. Therefore, you should choose a double-sided rug tape that can stick all surface types such as wood floors, stone, marble, tiles, and textile. This carpet tape from XFasten is compatible with all surface types. That is why it is a best-seller.

• Heavy-duty and High Tensile Strength. Your Carpet Tape should also withstand moisture, humidity, and heat. It should also have some degree of water-resistance to pass as an outdoor carpet tape. Purchase a carpet tape that is rated to be heavy-duty so that it can endure for years on your carpet or stair treads. But bear in mind that while it should be heavy-duty, it should also be residue-free and surface-safe at the same time.

• High Shear Stress Resistance. It is vital to get a carpet tape with high shear stress resistance, especially if you have kids or large pets running around the house. Shear stress is the force that is produced from sliding or slipping. This is due to kids or carpets running on top of the rug. If you often vacuum your carpets and find that they either get moved around much, or their corners are folded, then you would need a carpet tape that has a high shear stress resistance. Check out this curated list of carpet tapes that have been certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 9001:2005).

How to Use Carpet Seam Tape?

To use a Carpet Tape, follow the following steps:

1. Measure the dimensions of your carpet, rug, or stair treads. For large carpets, a carpet tape with a width of 2-3 inches is recommended. For stair treads and small rugs, a ½ to 1-inch tape will be sufficient.
2. Ensure that both surfaces are clean and dust-free. Ensure that the bottom of the rug is cleaned. Also, make sure that the floor or carpet where it is to be installed is dust-free. Clean both surfaces by wiping it with a damp cloth and then letting them dry thoroughly.
3. Put a strip of carpet tape on the bottom of the surface of the rug. Do the same on top of the floor. For the best results, you can follow the application pattern below.
4. Adhere one side of the adhesive carpet tape first before removing the adhesive liner. Make sure that each strip is already cut before trying to remove the sticky coating.
5. The adhesive liner of a carpet tape can be challenging to remove. To remove it quickly, create a small gap first between the double-sided carpet tape and the adhesive coating using your fingernail, a sharp cutter blade, or any flat-tipped surface. Once you have created a small gap, then you can separate the adhesive liner from the adhesive tape.
6. Apply more strips if needed.
7. Carpet tapes are equipped with a pressure-sensitive adhesive. This means that the more you apply pressure to it, the more it adheres to the surface. Use a roller or any cylindrical canister to apply pressure to the carpet tape against the surface to maximize the initial bonding strength of the surface.

You can use carpet seam tapes to secure carpets, rugs, and stair treads on tiles, wood flooring, wall-to-wall carpets, and area rugs.

For more information regarding the installation of carpet tapes, you can check out this instruction manual page which also contains the product details regarding our carpet tape.

How to Remove Carpet Tape?

You may want to remove the carpet tape later if you're going to wash, clean, or replace your carpets and rugs. To do so, remove the carpet from the surface by slowly and gradually pulling it off. 

This is why it is crucial to get a residue-free and surface-free rug tape. The reason being is that you would not want to end up with a damaged carpet or floor once you decide to remove or replace the carpet tape.

Slowly pull the carpet from the surface upon removal to avoid any form of damage. Do not suddenly pull it off with force as this can rip the flooring finish, especially if the adhesive is not surface-safe.

Also, to be sure, before applying the carpet tape, it is recommended to test out a short strip on a small corner of the carpet or floor first to verify how the adhesive will react to the surface if it is to be removed in the future. This is because various finishes react differently to many types of adhesive surfaces.

How to Remove Carpet Tape Adhesive Residue?

If you end up with a residue, then we recommend doing the following:

• Before removal, heat the adhesive and the strips using the warm/hot air exhaust of your hairdryer. The warm air will soften the adhesive and partially melt it. This will also remove the hardened bond between the two surfaces, thus, making it easier to remove the carpet tape without any problems on residue or damage. If you want to make sure that the removal does not result in any form of damage or residue, even if your carpet tape is rated as residue-free and surface-safe, then it is recommended to follow this step.
• However, if you end up with a sticky residue, then pour a small amount of kerosene or lighter fluid on the residue. Let the lighter fluid sit for 10-20 minutes and lightly brush the surface using a used-toothbrush or a piece of micro-fabric. The lighter fluid will melt the adhesive residue, making the removal easier.

Where to Buy Carpet Tape?

You can purchase carpet tapes on leading stores. However, if you want a carpet tape that is residue-free, surface-safe, and wood-safe, then we recommend purchasing from our XFasten brand.

We follow a set of strict laboratory and manufacturing standards. Our store is ISO 9001:2005 certified. Also, our customer service team will accommodate you any time of the day on your inquiries—even for products that have been purchased many months ago. This is what a true worry-free purchase means. We also follow a set of stringent laboratory and manufacturing standards. Also, our customer service team will accommodate you any time of the day on your inquiries—even for products that have been purchased many months ago. This is what a true worry-free purchase means.

To purchase XFasten products, then you can buy from our Amazon store or XFasten's online store here.

Conclusion

Having a carpet is an investment. It can beautify your home and offer a great deal of comfort to the household members. However, it can still pose some degree of a safety hazard at home. To promote child safety at home, it is best to invest in a premium-quality carpet tape.

Have you installed a carpet tape before? What features do you look for in a carpet tape? Let us know in the comments section below!