I'm just starting my carpet install and after removing the old carpet, I was struck by the number of holes I'm going to have to make for fasteners in my new carpet.

I don't want to just poke holes with an awl in the new carpet for fear that a thread will snag and start unraveling the carpet as I wind down the fastener. I think a knife would be suitable but that doesn't appear to be how they did it at the factory? I am thinking the better way would be to punch holes for the fasteners to give some clearance using something like this:


Amazon hole punch set

Most of the fasteners have trim washers under the heads that would hide the holes if they were a tad too big. Do you think this would give decent results? I'm worried that a punched hole in the wrong place would be a disaster, the nap won't cover it if the hole is too big.

Has anyone tried this?

 

If the carpet is sliverknit (OEM type material) it doesn't unravel like conventional carpet. As long as you get the size and location right, a knife or punch will work fine.
If the carpet is not sliverknit, all bets are off.

 

As Rob said a awl works great, I use a thin type to find the hole in the panel then find the drilled hole in the door ,
once these are lined up its pretty easy to screw in the fastener.
Never had any kind of unraveling/catching unless i used a rusty screw.

 

I am using sliverknit carpet from Classic 9, so maybe I can get away with the awl as you suggested Stan or a sharp hobby knife. I'll poke a few holes and see how I do. At least if I miss the location with the awl, it won't be noticeable.

 

the thin awl works perfect