How to Join Carpet to Tiles

A common question we are asked by customers is which internal door thresholds they should use to join carpet to tiles. The main concern is that the tiled floor is often higher than the carpet – a problem particularly prevalent in bathrooms where installation of underfloor heating can raise the tiled floor.

The diagram below shows the profile of a typical Single Naplock or Z Bar.

Here are a few tips and a choice of door bars which we would recommend for joining carpet to tiles:

The single naplock

The Single Naplock (i.e. teeth on one side of the base) grips the carpet and holds it in place, whilst the visible bar covers the two edges of (1) the carpet and (2) the tile.  It looks smart, is very robust and is very secure.  The Single Naplock door threshold design works well if your carpet and tiled floor are the same height. If the tiled floor is higher by a few millimetres then you can chock up or raise the door bar by inserting a slender piece of wood underneath it. If the difference is more, then we suggest you use a proprietary product such Easyshim, which acts as a ramp underneath the carpet as it rises up to the door bar and the height of the tiled floor.

You can do likewise with any hard floor, including wood or laminate, when you are joining to a carpet.

There are two Single Naplocks internal door thresholds to choose from on the Carpetrunners shopping website.  The Premier Door Bars (Z) are made of brass with an aluminium base and then plated in a choice of 9 different finishes. Or the Feline 1, which has a pristine appearance and is made in solid brass and offered in 5 different metal finishes.

Using a Cover Door Plate

A Cover Door Plate is another type of internal door threshold and joins two flooring surfaces together. But, unlike a Single Naplock, it sits over the gap between the two. The entire Cover Door Plate is above the surface of the flooring.  You would, therefore, securely fit your carpet in the normal way, using gripper or the like.  Should the two floors that you are joining be slightly different heights, then the cover door plate will simply ramp up or down from one to the other.

There are a few different designs which are particularly smart: the Premier Cover Door Plate is made in solid brass and available in ten metal finishes and is a contemporary design which reveals the matching screws down the centre. The Posh cover plate is made from solid brass in a number of different finishes.  The Posh are attached to your floor with central screws, which are then hidden beneath a matching metal strip. They comes in tem fashionable finishes, including polished brass, satin brass, brushed chrome and satin nickel.