carpet on walls (1 Viewer)

[ace peterson]

I know a lot of you put carpet on walls for your own theaters, and now I intend to follow suit and do the same with my home theater. However, I find little information that actually describes how to hang carpet on the walls. I was also thinking of carpeting the ceiling as well with some of that low-pile indoor/outdoor stuff. I would appreciate any ideas or thoughts from other people who have put carpet on their walls or ceilings. Tips, tricks, do's or don'ts.
Thanks in advance,
Ace

 

[Phil A]

You may also want to consider sound treating fabric too. I know that Acoustics First, www.acousticsfirst.com among others makes stuff. They will probably answer questions if you have them as well.

 

[Nick O]

I would use drywall adheasive or liquid nails for projects. these glues will also couple the carpets mass and add the glues own mass to your walls and help deaden their resonances as well as stopping unwanted reflections. I would use a concrete spatula with teeth to spread it evenly over the wall, the teeth will make the glue have rows that will smush into the carpets mesh backing. A few staples or nails should hold the top as you press it onto the glue. Youll save money if you buy a box of 24 tubes. Use about 1 tube per 4' x 6' and goop it on but remember its very permenent. tell us what you end up doing. good luck!

 

[DarrinH]

I did not install the carpet on my walls, but I was there while the carpet installers did it. They used nails to hold the top of the carpet to the drywall in a few places where a stud was located, but not at every stud along the wall. This helped to hold the carpet in in place while the adhesive set. The installers used the same type of adhesive that is used to adhere the commercial type carpet (low pile)to a concrete floor. They used a trowel with teeth on the side to place the adhesive on the wall, apply the carpet and smoothed it out with their hands and nailed it here and there at the top. Of course I have a drop ceiling so I installed it after the carpet went up and it hides the nails. You could use some molding to do such if you will not have a drop ceiling.
Worked like a charm and boy does it deaden the room. I am no audiophile but hope to be someday. I also have 4 movie posters in frames on my walls which adds some surfaces for reflection. I don't think you should have your room overly dead to sound reflection.
If you use a low pile carpet there will be no visible bumps due to glue lumps behind it like there would be with fabric only.
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The EC
The Entertainment Cave
"People that talk in metaphors oughta shampoo my crotch"

 

[ace peterson]

That adhesive stuff sounds great, but the drawback is if I ever want to change the carpet (just an IF), that would absolutely destroy the drywall behind it wouldnt it? I don't know why I would ever tear down the carpet, just an IF. Does that hold to ceilings, too? Do you know?
Ace

 

[Chad Isaacs]

If I remember right,Ron P used staples and covered the staples with molding...That would be a good temporary solution.
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"And the horse i rode in on?"...Marge Simpson

 

[DarrinH]

Boy ceilings too? That would be something to see. I would bet that the adhesive would hold to celings fine. The problem would be keeping the carpet on the ceiling while the glue had time to set. Yes the drywall would be ruined if you removed the carpet. Thats bad for me because if I ever sold my house...well the room would have to be reconstructed. I am glad I did it though. The room is unique and a cozy place to be.
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The EC
The Entertainment Cave
"People that talk in metaphors oughta shampoo my crotch"

 

[Erik Farstad]

If you want a good adhesive for carpet on walls use adhesive strips vertically every foot or so over the wall surface, with staples at the top and bottom. This way if you ever want or need to take down the carpet you're not "killing" your drywall job.
See "The Nate" over at www.avscience.com for a good description of how this is done.
Cheers, E
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The Norwegian Audio/Video NUT!

 

[Brett Robert]

Ok I am/was going to carpet my walls. First let me tell you about a fellow enthusiast over at AVS forum. He used wallpaper adhesive to hold the carpet up. It has been up for 6 months now. He stapled the walls at the top to hold it while it set. I think you can get the stuff in 5 gal buckets and just roll it on the wall. He liked it. It is a short napped gray carpet. Now as far as the carpet. From what I have heard everyone that has carpeted their rooms loves it. Now the people that seem the most knowledgeable say that it absorbs the high end frequencies more then the mids and lows. There for the sound isn't even. My room is at a stand still until winter, but I am using it now. So I am still up in the air on this. I was going to go with the carpet more for the look then the acoustics.
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~~~~~~~Brett~~~~~~~~~
Champagne tastes with a beer budget
My HT

 

[DarrinH]

One other thing, the carpet can cause a problem with room temperature due to overinsulation. Make sure you have good air circulation in the room. Not only to prevent overheating your components but making the room too stuffy for more than 4 people to tollerate if you have an audience. I have my theater in my basement and I can tell you its the coolest room in the summer and the warmest room in the winter because the carpet acts as insulation on the outside of the wall. This in addition to the insulation I put within the ceiling and walls to help stop sound transmittion really hold the rooms temperature (which of course is set by my HVAC system).
Good Luck with your construction...

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The EC
The Entertainment Cave
"People that talk in metaphors oughta shampoo my crotch"
http://192.41.19.35/goodgets/crotch.wav

 

[Ron-P]

Chad is correct.
I used a black low-pile carpet similar to felt. I cut the carpet into 3' sections and then attached them to the walls using a staple gun. I used 1/2" staples and stapled the entire perimeter of the carpet, using 1 staple every foot or so. I then placed molding up the walls at the seems. The bottom 2.5' of the walls are not covered in carpet, just painted. I used molding horizontally around the room also to cover the staples and divide the room from where the carpet and painted walls joined.
It worked great. I did this for flexibility reasons, if I ever wanted to change carpet or pull it down, I will not destroy the textured wall.
I decided to leave the ceiling white for light reflection. I tried covering the ceiling with black felt once and it was way too dark. I am finding that with my new 46" 16:9 RPTV it is even brighter than my old 35" 4:3 Sony and I am having to up the light level in the room just because of the TV.
I should have some updated pics on my website within the next two weeks.
Peace Out~

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http://home.earthlink.net/~peregrinefalcon/

 

[Paul E V]

I used a black low-pile carpet similar to felt.

Would there be any benefit/drawback to using felt instead of carpet?
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'Pioneer 'ing a new level of Home Theater
My Equipment List / Copper & Rosewood Flexi idea

 

[Ron-P]

Would there be any benefit/drawback to using felt instead of carpet?

The felt at the fabric stores in my area was flammable and it had no backing, making it difficult to work with. The carpet I used had a rubber backing, making it much easier to work with and it was treated with a flame retardant.
Peace Out~

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http://home.earthlink.net/~peregrinefalcon/

 

[Eric Trombley]

I put medium pile, grey carpeting on my walls in the home theater in my previous house (current HT in new house is under construction), and thought it worked great. Here are my opinions:
1) Don't go too nuts with it! I had it all the way around the room, but only covering the bottom 3 1/2 feet of the walls. This kept the upper part of the room more 'live', allowing for the sound reflections required for a diffused rear surround soundfield.
2) Certainly do not put it on the ceiling, at the risk of over deadening the room, since the surround speakers, which are generally close to the ceiling. Anaechoic rooms are great for testing speakers, horrible for listening to them.
3) Don't compromise on the HT by worrying about whether or not you will want to take the carpeting off 10 years from now. Sheetrock can be replaced; my 10 thumbs and I can do it, so can yours.
- Eric

 

[ace peterson]

Good points guys. After reading some of these, I think I should take it easy on this carpet thing. Doing the ceiling would definately 'over-deaden' the room. And also, who gives a hoot about the drywall behind. It can always be replaced at a relatively low cost. True.
To the guy who cut carpet into 3' foot sections and covered the seems with moulding, "how does that look?" Is it neat and cool or does it appear awkward? I couldn't see them in your website.

 

[Ron-P]

This is the guy who cut the carpet into 3' sections.
I did this on purpose because it was the look I was going for. I did not need to cut up the carpet, but because I was going to put up the molding, it made the carpet easier to install. I looks really good and I have received a lot of compliments on it so far. It gave the room a more classy look, which is what I wanted.
I have not updated the pics on my site yet, that is why you cannot see them. Hope to get all new pics up in a week or so. I am just finishing up the final details on the face-lift.
Peace Out~

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http://home.earthlink.net/~peregrinefalcon/

 

[ace peterson]

Ron-
Thanks for the tips. Nice way that worked out for you then. That would make the job a lot easier. We always learn so much after doing it the first time...
Ace