How to Install a Z Bar Carpet Strip
When your floors shift from carpet to linoleum or wood, you need a transition piece, or carpet strip, between rooms to hold the edge of the carpet in place. If the edge of the carpet were left exposed, not only would it look sloppy, but the carpet would begin to fray.
A Z-bar carpet strip, which resembles the shape of the letter Z, provides the transition and protection the carpet needs.
Things You Will Need
- Tape measure
- Hacksaw
- Tin snips
- Hammer
- Nails
- Knee kicker
- Screwdriver
- Carpet tucker
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Measure the opening of the doorway or entryway where you will be installing the Z-bar. Cut the Z-bar to this length with a hacksaw.
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Cut off the corners of the Z-bar, where the door jamb will be, with tin snips. The Z-bar needs to be able to lay flat without the jamb interfering.
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Position one lip of the Z-bar flat on the hard surface with the other lip laying flat on the floor where the carpet will be. Hammer nails into the lip of the Z-bar laying on the floor to hold the bar in place.
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Stretch the carpet over the Z-bar with a knee kicker. Place the spiked end of the kicker a few inches away from the bar, on top of the carpet. Apply gentle pressure as you hit the flat end of the kicker with your knee to push the carpet forward. Continue until your carpet is positioned over the bar and is stretched across the floor.
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Push the edge of the carpet into the space in the lip of the Z-bar positioned over the hard surface. Push it firmly in place with a screwdriver or carpet tucker.
The Drip Cap
- When your floors shift from carpet to linoleum or wood, you need a transition piece, or carpet strip, between rooms to hold the edge of the carpet in place.
- A Z-bar carpet strip, which resembles the shape of the letter Z, provides the transition and protection the carpet needs.
- Cut off the corners of the Z-bar, where the door jamb will be, with tin snips.
- Position one lip of the Z-bar flat on the hard surface with the other lip laying flat on the floor where the carpet will be.
