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by: Eric Larson
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Book Description This is the complete carpet installation training handbook. It covers all of the beginner through advanced terms and technologies. This handbook walks you through all of the installation procedures step by step. The handbook includes measuring for carpet, stretch-in carpet procedures, hand sewing, glue down carpet, steps, non-stretchable carpets, carpeting around posts and over ledges, among other valuable information. The Carpet Installation Training Handbook is illustrated with action photographs of real installers working on real jobs, unlike other dull technical instruction books that leave you in a daze. Its written in plain English and packed with information. It is one of the best books on the subject.
Great book on carpet installation -- I work for a property management firm. We just started doing out carpet in house. I searched for installation training as was unable to find any. I even went to many different flooring tool suppliers and I was still unable to come up with any references on the subject. This book is an invaluable training aid for new installers. A follow up video would be great.
Good data - Horrible editing -- This is a good book on how to lay carpet. The carpet on my stairs was wearing out and I wanted to replace it myself from extra carpet I had from the original installation. Eric Larson's book gave me the information to do the job. I read the rest of the book and, although I did not use the data, the information seemed complete and the instructions were generally clear. It's clear that Eric wrote the book for apprentice carpet installers and I applaud his textbook-like approach with the questions and answers after each chapter. Based on the information contained and the approach used to teach it, I would give the book four to four and a half stars. My complaint is about the editing, which is attributed to Dr. William G. Burns of San Antonio. The English used in the book is atrocious. Sentences and clauses run together without any punctuation, sort of the way someone would speak in informal speech. Many of the sentences are just fragments, either without a verb or without a subject. Possessive forms do not use an apostrophe (Jacks hammer instead of Jack's hammer). It's clear that this book was written on a word processor and the spell check was used without any human judgment. There are many places in the book where the wrong word is used, but not misspelled. That is, "their" is used where it should be "there". "To" is used when it should be "too". "And" is used when it should be "an" ("three eights of and inch"). The book is riddled with errors of this nature. My favorite is where Eric writes that "...the installer should asses the job..." instead of "assess". I realize that Eric is a carpet installer and not an English major, and I do not fault him for the poor English usage. I do fault him for not realizing his weakness and finding a better editor, even if that editor would drive him crazy with rewrites and markups. There's simply no excuse for putting out a book, especially one that is to be used as a textbook, with such poor English usage. However, if you can get past the mangling of the language, the book does have some good information on carpet installation.
Reviews:
This is the book you want.... The content within this book is excellent. It takes the mystery out of installing carpet. It's modern, being published in 2002, and the author really knows what he is talking about. It's designed as a training handbook for assistant installers, but it is a perfect resource for the do-it-yourselfer, as well. The book opens with a section on professionalism, attire, cleanliness, and tattoo's. It's an awkward beginning for the do-it-yourselfer, but the message is well intended, and I found it humorous to read (I agree with the authors view about tattoo's). The organization of the book is somewhat unusual with a glossary being in the first section, but it actually makes good sense, since you will need to know the terms as baseline information to help you get started. I would suggest that the author move it to an appendix and and refer to it within the text. My ONLY complaint about this book is that there are many typographical errors. As I read it, I wondered if the editor had read it? All in all, I would say that this book is easily worth twice the price. A well done first effort by Eric Larson.