• If possible, make driveway available for cutting of the carpet. 
• Clear all areas of furniture unless the installers are providing basic furniture moving.
• If you are painting walls and baseboards prior to carpet installation, make sure you paint all the way down the baseboard below the level of the new carpet. 

When the installers are providing basic furniture moving services, the customer must still:

• Disconnect wiring and cables from electronic equipment. 
• Remove small items from  the tops of furniture to be moved, and place them out of the installation area, i.e. ash trays, books and magazines, plants and other small items. 
• Empty china cabinets, hutches, bookcases and remove glass shelves..  
• Installers will not move "objects of art" or non-replaceable "heirloom items", it is up to the customer to move these prior to installation.
• Clear closet floors of shoes, clothing and other items. Low hanging clothing should also be moved.
• Remove sheets from beds.  Drain and dismantle water beds (installers will move the disassembled pieces).
• Installers will not disassemble or assemble furniture. Examples of assembly furniture are anchored or joined wall units, pier units, waterbeds, Murphy beds, and some oversized desks and workstations. On a case by case basis, installers may on occasion move assembled furniture, pianos, or pool tables depending on size, weight, and location, but these are best handled by specialty movers.
• Restrict pets to areas other than work areas.

At time of installation:

• First of all, do a walk-through with the installer to show him the areas receiving carpet. If you or the installer have any concerns or questions regarding installation , discuss it with the installers at the very beginning. Notify the installer of any under-carpet wires for alarms, speakers, phones, etc.
• Minor foundation cracks and expansion joints are common in concrete slabs and unless the crack is severe, it will not effect the proper installation or wear of new carpet. Most cracks do not need fill or caulk for proper installation of the new carpet. Severe cracks that are not level may create a wear area and may be felt through the carpet and pad. Severe cracks that are not level should be filled and beveled with floor fill to eliminate the sharp edge (high side of the crack). The rise will most likely still be felt through the carpet and pad but the sharp edge will be eliminated. Filling or caulking cracks is at additional cost to the customer depending on the severity of crack and the amount of time and fill required. Most severe cracks are already known to the homeowner, as they can be felt through the existing flooring. Customers may also opt to fill minor cracks at additional cost, though it generally is not necessary.
• Tack strips are only replaced when necessary, i.e. will not hold the new stretch due to rusted out pins or strips that are rotted by persistent exposure to water or animal urine. The installers will decide which tack strips to replace, reinforce with nails, or back up with new strips. If a customer wants "all new" tack strips, this will be at additional charge for time and materials. Be aware  that in most cases there is no benefit to knocking out and replacing existing tack strips unless they are damaged as mentioned above.
• A note about the appearance of your new carpet when it is first unwrapped and rolled out. Because the carpet is rolled "tight" for shipping, the yarns are highly compressed and flattened in one direction. The carpet will look thinner and reflect light differently than the sample you viewed. Colors will look different outdoors than indoors due to the difference in color temperature of the light sources. Color hues are often cast due to wall coloration, tinting on windows or glass doors. When the carpet is inside the home and it has been stretched and vacuumed, its appearance will be similar to the sample viewed in the same light source. Cut pile carpets will become fuller and feel thicker after the twist in yarns has had time to relax from it's highly compressed shipping condition.

After the installation:

• Normal installation methods may lightly scuff baseboards and walls. The installers will use extreme care to minimize these occurrences. 
• Seam appearance generally improves with vacuuming and normal foot traffic. See "will I see seams " in general questions page.
• Shedding and fuzzing are a common occurrence on all staple cut pile carpets and may fill up vacuum cleaner bags quickly and sometimes even clog the vacuum cleaner. What appears to be a lot of fiber loss is actually a minute percentage of the carpet weight. The amount of fiber ends released will diminish with time and vacuuming.
• Shading, foot printing, and vacuum tracking are common, to varying degrees, with all cut pile carpets. 
• If you fill tacks or nails at flooring transitions areas (where carpet meets vinyl or tile). Lightly tap them down with a hammer. Tack strips are used to hold the stretch at most flooring edge transitions, the installer taps the nails down during installation but may occasionally miss some. 
• Roll Crush or "nap reversal" occurs in repeating portions of the "carpet roll", where pile yarn has been flattened do to the weight of the carpet roll itself. These areas of flattened yarn usually appear as widthwise bands of lighter or darker color, although the color is not different. Roll crush is not a manufacturing defect and most roll crush will disappear after the yarn has been allowed sufficient time to blossom. Stubborn crush marks are removed with steam.
• For warrantee purposes, it is important to maintain your carpet as recommended by the carpet manufacturer.

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