How to Fix a Hole in Carpet in Easy 7 Steps (30 Minutes)

Dog chew a hole in your carpet? Or maybe you burnt a hole in the carpet? It doesn’t have to ruin your day.

In under 30 minutes, you can learn how to fix hole in carpet. This will save you $50-$100 on a carpet professional’s trip out to your home to patch a small area of the carpet.

Think you’re not handy? Patching carpet is easy – however, if you don’t have patch material, or don’t feel like you can do a good enough job – a professional carpet installer or a handyman will likely do a much better job for about $100-$200.

Also consider this – a typical roof of 200 sq. ft. will cost $600-900 to install brand new carpet and padding, including materials and labor… do you want to repair that smelly old carpet?

Feel like you can tackle this and your carpet is in decent shape? Let’s start with what you need:

Materials and Tools:

• Carpet remnant that matches the carpet around the hole
• Utility knife (or see carpet hole cutter below)
• Empty can (if you don’t buy carpet hole cutter)
• Scissors
• Single-sided carpet tape (I like this one)
• Masking tape
• Marker
• Empty can (optional for tracing)

Full disclosure: If you buy any of the products I link to on Amazon, I will get a small commission. I appreciate any support!

Note:They make carpet hole cutout tools. These are nice because they make cutting a perfectly matching hole out of the carpet and out of your new remnant easy. I like this one. If you buy it, you won’t need the empty can or utility knife in the materials above.

Most of those materials are pretty straightforward. For the carpet remnant, the best option is leftover carpet from your install. Many installers leave you with some for these purposes. Don’t have it? You can try to find your exact match carpet at the store where you got it. The store doesn’t have it? You can cut out a piece from a less important area like a closet. No one will ever notice.

Now that you have your carpet and materials ready. Let’s start:

Step 1: Outline the damaged area

Press the empty can onto the carpet, centering on the middle of the hole. This will leave an indented circle on top of your carpet that completely contains the damaged section.

Step 2: Cut out the damaged section

With your utility knife (or your carpet hole repair cutter if you bought one on Amazon), cut out the damaged piece of carpet, following the outline that you made in step one. Cut firmly through the base of the carpet but be careful not to cut into the carpet padding underneath. After you have finished cutting out your circle, use your hands or a vacuum to remove any stray carpet fibers.

Step 3: Find carpet remnant

Now that you have your piece cut out, you will need the replacement carpet. Most of the time there will be extra carpet left over after you have finished installing it, and you can use a piece of that for the repair.

If you do not have extra carpet, there may be small sections of carpet that are not clearly visible, such as the carpeting in the back of a closet.

Step 4: Trim repair piece

Take the same can you used in step 1 and mark an outline in the remnant (or use your carpet hole repair cutter). You will want the cut-out piece to be as close as possible to the size of the new hole you’ve made. When you cut it with the utility knife, try to copy the same movement and create a circle of the same size and shape.

After you have cut out the repair piece, clean the fringes of loose or damaged carpet fibers.

Step 5: Mark the direction of the nap

The key to replacing a damaged carpet is to make the two sections match as best you can. The nap of the carpet will need to match and travel in the same direction, so take note of the direction on the new piece. With the masking tape and marker, draw an arrow that shows which direction it’s going.

Next, you should do the same thing with the carpet surrounding the damaged area. Draw the arrow on the masking tape and make sure that you have both arrows pointing in the same direction.

Step 6: Add carpet tape

Take your single-sided carpet tape and cut enough lengths to fill the gap in the carpet. Each strip should be about 2-3 inches longer than the width you are trying to fix because you’ll pull up the carpet around the hole and put some of the tape under it.

Peel off the adhesive backing, pull up the carpet around the hole, and slide the tape under the carpet. The sticky end will be facing up, and the tape should go 1-2″ past the hole (so it is anchored by the current carpet). Repeat this as many times as needed to cover the entire area of the hole. When you are finished, the “hole” should now be covered with tape sticky side up ready to “grab” the new carpet cutout.

Note:You can find both single and double-sided carpet tape. You can use either type here if you only have doubled sided, but single-sided will be easier to work within the small gap you’ve made.

Step 7: Patch the carpet hole

The arrows showing the direction of the nap should still be facing in the same direction. Gently insert the new carpet piece into the hole until it is attached to the carpet tape and level with the carpet surrounding it. Once it is in place, press firmly on the edges for about five minutes and shift the carpet fibers to hide any gaps between the new piece and the old.

If you want, you can place a heavy piece of furniture over the new piece overnight to press it down even more.

Step 8: Trim uneven fibers

No matter how well you lay it down, there will probably be longer pieces that don’t fit right between the new section and the old. You can even them out by lightly running scissors over the top of the carpet fibers and snipping off any lengths that are too long. Be careful not to cut it too short.

Captain’s parting words

See… fixing a carpet hole isn’t that difficult after all.

Now, next time you need a carpet repair, you have the knowledge to DIY. It’ll save you spending $50+ to have a professional make a trip to your house.