Carpet
The bedroom carpet that has been wrinkled at the closet door for years because the original installer used a knee-kicker instead of a power stretcher. The rental-turnover stretch where the property manager needs the unit ready in a week and the carpet pulled, the staple subfloor cleaned, and the new pad and carpet down by Friday. The thirty-year-old wall-to-wall in a master bedroom that has worn through at the doorway and is now scheduled for a swap to engineered hardwood. The straight-run staircase where the owner has picked a wool runner from a Pental sample book and needs it tacked in with a French cap. Carpet is the soft-surface trade for residential Seattle homes — installation, removal and disposal, carpet-to-hard-surface conversion, and stair-runner installation. Four service families, every one running the carpet trade end to end with a power stretcher per the Carpet and Rug Institute CRI 105 installation standard, real pad spec (8-pound 7/16-inch rebond on most installs, higher-density pad on stairs and high-traffic rooms), hot-melt heat-bonded seams, and tackless-strip perimeters fastened to wood subfloors with carpet nails or to concrete with hardened masonry nails. From $400 for a single-room carpet pull and disposal up to $12,000 for a whole-floor carpet-to-engineered-hardwood conversion.
Services
What Carpet Covers
Carpet is the residential soft-surface trade for the four most common Seattle carpet scopes — a fresh install of broadloom over pad in bedrooms, family rooms, and offices; a clean pull and disposal of old carpet for a remodel or hard-surface conversion; the demo and prep work that bridges from carpet out to hard-surface install; and stair-runner installation in straight-run or curved staircases. Four service families, each with its own scope and price floor. Handis self-performs every carpet step — substrate inspection, tackless-strip layout, pad install, carpet stretch on a power stretcher (the CRI 105 standard, not the knee-kicker-only shortcut), seam heat-bond, transition trim, and haul-off. The carpet trade is the cleanest Handis-self-performed scope on the site — no licensed sub, no permit, no waiting on another trade. We are honest on the call about which scope is a single-visit job and which needs a multi-day calendar.
Carpet Installation
Broadloom carpet (Mohawk SmartStrand, Shaw Anso, Stainmaster PetProtect, Tigressa, or any owner-supplied product) installed over rebond pad in bedrooms, family rooms, offices, basements, and any room sized for wall-to-wall. We do the substrate prep (staple pull, vacuum, repair of any subfloor damage), tackless-strip layout around the perimeter, pad install with seams taped and stapled to the subfloor, carpet stretch on a power stretcher (the CRI 105 installation standard), seams hot-melt heat-bonded with a seam iron and seam tape, perimeter trim at every wall and threshold. From $2,500 for a small bedroom up to $6,500 for a finished basement or great room.
Carpet Installation — power stretch, real pad, hot-melt seams, CRI 105 standard
Carpet Removal & Disposal
The clean tear-out for a remodel, a hard-surface conversion, a moisture-event remediation, or a rental turnover. Pull the carpet, pull the pad, pull every tackless strip, pull every staple from the subfloor, vacuum the substrate, and haul off and recycle per the CRI carpet-recycling program where available. The work that takes one Handis day and leaves a clean subfloor ready for the next install. From $400 for a single bedroom up to $1,200 for a whole-floor pull on a 1,800 to 2,200 square foot home.
Carpet Removal & Disposal — tear out, staple pull, haul off, recycle
Carpet-to-Hard-Surface Conversion
The full-scope project for homeowners replacing carpet with engineered hardwood, luxury vinyl plank, laminate, or tile across one or more rooms. Carpet demo and disposal, full subfloor inspection (deflection check on the joists, flatness check with a 10-foot straightedge, moisture meter on any room with a history), substrate prep (self-level or grind to spec), and install of the new hard-surface flooring. Handis runs the whole project — the conversion is the cleanest scope when one party owns both the demo side and the install side. From $4,500 for a single bedroom converted up to $12,000 for a full main-floor conversion.
Carpet-to-Hard-Surface Conversion — demo, substrate prep, hard-surface install, transition trim
Stair Runner Installation
A stair runner — waterfall style (continuous wrap over each tread and riser) or French cap (each tread and riser pre-cut and tacked separately) — installed over pad on a straight-run, L-shaped, or curved staircase. Owner-supplied runner (most owners pick from Pental, Stark, or an online direct-buy) installed with a power stretcher and a tackless strip on each tread, fastened with carpet nails to wood treads or trimmed and tacked to the riser face. From $1,200 for a straight-run runner up to $3,500 for a curved-stair or a custom-cap install.
Stair Runner Installation — waterfall, French cap, pad, power stretch
Carpet Pricing
Final pricing depends on the room or floor square footage, the carpet and pad spec (owner-supplied or Handis-sourced), the substrate condition, and whether transitions to hard-surface flooring are in scope. Each child page lists detailed pricing for that service family. Carpet and pad are line-itemed separately from labor on every quote so the material cost is clear. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us the room, the carpet spec, and the timeline — we will quote the project with carpet and pad line-itemed separately from labor.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for Carpet
The single most common failed carpet install we are asked to fix is the bedroom or family room where the original installer used a knee-kicker to stretch the carpet across the long dimension instead of a power stretcher. The knee-kicker is a tool meant for the perimeter and the small spaces; the power stretcher is the tool meant for any room dimension over about 10 feet. A knee-kicker install reads as wrinkles inside the first year — a ripple across the carpet at the closet door, a buckle in the middle of the floor under a piece of furniture, a stretch loss at the threshold to the hallway. The fix is a re-stretch on a power stretcher, sometimes a full pull and re-install if the carpet has been wrinkled long enough that the backing has set. Handis runs a power stretcher on every install over 8 feet in any dimension. We follow the Carpet and Rug Institute CRI 105 installation standard because it is the difference between a carpet that holds flat for ten years and one that ripples in eighteen months.
Power stretcher on every install — the CRI 105 standard
The Carpet and Rug Institute CRI 105 installation standard requires a power stretcher (not just a knee-kicker) on any carpet install where one room dimension exceeds 8 feet — which is every residential bedroom, family room, basement, and office. The power stretcher pulls the carpet to the manufacturer-specified stretch percentage across the field and locks it onto the tackless strip at the opposite wall. The knee-kicker is the perimeter and small-space tool. The shortcut install — knee-kicker only across the field — is the most common reason a carpet ripples or wrinkles inside the first year.
Real pad spec — 8-pound rebond at minimum, not the cheap stuff
The pad under the carpet is what makes the carpet feel right underfoot and what determines whether the manufacturer warranty stays in force. Most carpet manufacturer warranties require at minimum a 6-pound rebond pad with a 7/16-inch thickness; we install 8-pound 7/16-inch rebond as the Handis default because the difference in cost is small and the difference in feel and longevity is substantial. Higher-density pad (10-pound on stairs, 12-pound on high-traffic basement carpet) gets specced where the use case calls for it. Pad spec is line-itemed on the quote.
Hot-melt heat-bonded seams — no double-stick tape shortcuts
Carpet seams (where two pieces of carpet meet on the same field) get hot-melt seam tape and a seam iron at every Handis install. The seam iron melts the adhesive on the tape, the carpet edges press into the molten adhesive, the seam cools and locks. The result is a seam that disappears visually and holds for the life of the carpet. The double-stick tape shortcut some bargain installers use opens up inside two years and reads as a visible line across the floor.
Honest carpet sourcing — owner-supplied or Handis-sourced, named on the quote
Owner-supplied carpet from Pental, Carpet Liquidators, Great Floors, Floor & Decor, or any online direct-buy. Or Handis-sourced from the regional suppliers we work with regularly (Mohawk SmartStrand, Shaw Anso, Stainmaster PetProtect, Tigressa). Either way, carpet and pad are line-itemed separately from labor on every quote so you see the material cost clearly. We will tell you on the booking call which carpet lines fit which use case (a wool loop for a low-traffic bedroom, a solution-dyed nylon for a high-traffic family room, a pet-stain-resistant for a household with dogs) without pushing a specific brand.
Insured, background-checked, written project warranty
Handis carries general liability and workers' compensation; every technician has cleared a background screening before the first job. Our one-year project warranty covers the carpet stretch (no ripples or buckles within a year), the pad install (no pad migration or shrinkage), and the seams (no separation). The carpet manufacturer's stain and wear warranty stays with the product itself per their terms. We will tell you on the booking call which warranty covers which failure mode.
Estimate
Tell us the rooms (bedrooms, family room, basement, stairs), rough square footage per room, the carpet and pad spec if you have one, whether you are doing a fresh install or a removal-and-conversion, and any known issues (existing carpet wrinkled, subfloor damage, pet stain history). Send phone photos if you can. We send a clear estimate with carpet, pad, and labor line-itemed separately.
What Our Customers Say
Recent carpet reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
Full master bedroom carpet install. The previous carpet had wrinkled inside the first year of the original install. Handis ran a power stretcher across the long dimension this time and the carpet has been dead flat for two years. They used 8-pound rebond pad and heat-bonded the one seam. The bedroom feels like a different room.
Carpet pull and disposal across the whole upstairs ahead of a hardwood install we did with a different floor specialist. Handis pulled the carpet, the pad, every tackless strip, and every staple from the subfloor in one Handis day. The subfloor was vacuumed clean by the time they left. The hardwood crew started the next morning and said the substrate was the cleanest they had seen.
Carpet-to-engineered-hardwood conversion across the main floor — bedrooms, halls, living room, dining room. Handis pulled the carpet, did the deflection and flatness check, self-leveled a couple of low spots, installed the engineered hardwood, did the transition trim at the kitchen tile, reset the baseboards. Five working days, one party running the whole project.
Stair runner install on a straight-run staircase between the first and second floors. Owner-supplied wool runner from a Pental sample book. Handis tacked it with tackless strip on each tread, pad underneath, French cap style with each tread and riser pre-cut. The runner is dead flat at every step. Cleanest stair runner install I have seen in a residential home.
Finished basement carpet install in a 700 square foot great room. Three seams across the field, all heat-bonded with a seam iron — you cannot see any of them. Stretched with a power stretcher across the long dimension. Higher-density 10-pound pad because the basement gets used hard. A year and a half later it still looks like the day they finished.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis residential carpet services — install, removal, conversion, stair runners, pricing, scheduling.