Carpet Repair (Berber or any other) : Fix snags and runs, burns – best Berber repair kit

Snag in your carpet?

This is one of the few times where the fix will beeasier than you expect.

There are 3 types of snag repairs depending on your goals:

• just limiting further damage
• repairing a small (one or two loop) snag
• repairing a longer “run” (snag that pulled multiple loops) in the carpet

After covering snag repairs, I’ll also cover how to easily fix permanent damage in a Berber carpet with a repair kit at the bottom of this page. This could be a ripped out area, a stain you can’t remove, or a burn in the carpet.

The simplest way to fix a pulled loop or snag (2-minute repair)

The problem with snags is they tend to unravel, so that little snag you have may end up being a big snag.

There’s a simple 2-minute repair to keep this from happening. It’s not the best repair, but if you just want to limit damage or have a small snag, sometimes it works great.

Tools required:

• hot glue gun
• flathead screwdriver (alternatively butter knife or other blunt object)

Step 1: See if you can push the snagged loop back down

Sometimes you can take a screwdriver (or even your finger) and push the pulled loop back down into the carpet, and it looks great! Many times you’ll hardly be able to notice the difference in the damaged area after doing this.

If it looks good, you can move on to step 2.

If it’s too big to push back down or just doesn’t look right, your other option is to cut out the snagged loop. This gets it out of the way, so it can’t snag and unravel further.

Step 2: Glue it down

Take hot glue or super glue and glue down the area you pushed down. This will do 2 things: hold the repair in place, but also keep it from snagging further.

Step 3: You’re finished

Well, this was simple. There is no step 3. But keep in mind, this repair probably won’t work for longer snags also known as runs. You can try to push the carpet fibers back down before gluing and see how it looks, but I’m guessing you’re going to want to move on to the next procedure:

Repairing carpets run or large snags (30-minute repair)

Sometimes your vacuum yanks a big strands of your Berber out, or you already had a snag that was caught and pulled further creating a run through your carpet.

(side note: check out our best vacuums for Berber page for vacuums that work great without snagging your looped carpet)

Usually, you’re best off spot replacing the carpet in these areas. This isn’t nearly as easy as our previous repair, but I still think you can get it done in 30 minutes.

Tools Required

• Utility knife
• Hot glue gun (or super glue)
• “Leftover” carpet

Some installers will leave behind extra carpeting for this reason. If not, you can usually remove some from a less visible area (like a closet) and re-use it for the repair.

Now, the details of the repair:

Step 1: Cut out the damaged area

With the utility knife, cut into the damaged section of carpet all the way to the carpet backing. Try to get as close as you can to the undamaged carpets without actually cutting them.

Step 2: Cut “leftover” carpet

Measure the size of the area you have cut out. Cut an identical size and shape out of the extra carpet so it has an exact match to your damaged area.Note:some people shortcut this by placing the “leftover” carpet over the actual carpet and cut out both carpets at the same time (the damaged area and “leftover”), so they should match exactly. the trick here is you have to measure how big the damaged area is and go slightly beyond that, since the “leftover” carpet will be covering the damage.

Step 3: Install “leftover” carpet

Place the donor carpet into the area where you cut out the damaged section and lay it against the undamaged sections. To keep it in place, you can add super glue to the bottom of the carpet and hold it down according to the instructions. If it is the correct size, it will be a lot easier to make it flat and even with the rest of your carpet.

Berber carpet repair kit for permanent damage

Sometimes you either have a torn area, a permanent stain (note: I have a page on how to get red wine out of carpet), or a burn that there’s no way to repair other than to replace the area. The best way to do this is with a repair kit, which will make it simple.

I like this repair kit. It’s simple to use and is worth the cost. You can do this manually, but it’s difficult to get a perfect match. Here’s how you use it:

1. Use blades in the circular device to cut out the damaged area of your carpet
2. Use blades in the circular device to cut a piece from spare carpet (most people have a backup piece of their carpet–carpet remnant–but you can also cut out an area in a closet or under furniture if in a pinch)
3. Add white disc adhesive to the area of removed carpet
4. Press the new piece of carpet into the adhesive

That’s it! Easy!

Captain’s parting words!

If you can, go for the 2-minute fix. On small snags, you’ll never know where it happened, and it prevents further damage (kind of like when you get a rock dent on your windshield–this prevent the crack from spreading).

But if you have to, you’re capable of replacing the damaged section of your carpet. And if you just don’t want to, you can always hire a professional. Many carpet installers and some carpet cleaners will be up to the task.

Questions on repairing your carpet snag or run? Let me know in the comments below.