Three hours to cut in a single doorway, here's why

I kept seeing guys online say doorways are a 15 minute job, tops. I finally ran into a house where the door frames had these weird metal thresholds that were set almost a half inch above the subfloor. Took me 45 minutes just to figure out how to notch the carpet and pad so they'd lay flat without bulging. Then the tack strip kept popping up because the concrete underneath was chipped and uneven. I had to mix up some leveler and wait for it to dry, which cost me another hour. By the time I got the carpet tucked and trimmed clean, I had burned three hours on one stupid doorway. Has anyone else dealt with thresholds that sit way higher than normal?

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1 Comment

alicea263h ago

Have you tried shaving down the bottom of the door frame instead of fighting the threshold? I used a oscillating multi-tool to cut a little off the bottom of the casing where the carpet needs to tuck under, gives you just enough room to jam the carpet in there without that bulge. For the high threshold problem, I'll sometimes cut the carpet and pad a little short and use a metal transition strip that matches the height difference, barely takes twenty minutes total and looks cleaner than trying to notch everything perfect. That tack strip popping up with chipped concrete is a nightmare though, I feel your pain on waiting for leveler to dry.