If you are planning to install carpet, vinyl, or laminate yourself, Roberts flooring tools are one of the most recognizable names you will run into at the hardware store and online. Roberts has built a broad catalog aimed at both pros and serious DIYers, covering everything from carpet knee kickers and seam irons to laminate cutters, notched trowels, and knee pads. This guide walks through the main tool categories the brand is known for, what each one does, and how to evaluate quality before you spend money.
Who Roberts Tools Are Made For
Roberts sits in a useful middle ground. The lineup is more durable and feature-rich than the throwaway tools you sometimes find bundled with a flooring kit, yet it stays affordable enough that a homeowner doing a single room does not have to feel like they overspent. Many of the carpet-specific tools follow the same form factor that professional installers have used for decades, so the muscle memory and technique you learn carry over.
You will see these tools used in three common scenarios: a weekend project where someone is laying laminate or luxury vinyl plank in a bedroom, a landlord or handyman doing repeated turnover work across rental units, and apprentice installers building out a starter kit. If you only plan to do one small job in your life, a rental or a cheap single-use tool may be enough. If you expect to tackle several rooms or repeat projects, owning mid-grade tools usually pays off within two or three installs.
Carpet Installation Tools
Carpet is where Roberts has the deepest reputation, because stretching and seaming wall-to-wall carpet requires specialized gear that has no real substitute.
Knee Kickers
A knee kicker is the short stretching tool you bump with your knee to pull carpet tight against the tack strip along a wall. Look for an adjustable pin depth so you can match the bite to your carpet’s backing, a padded knee bumper, and a telescoping handle for tight closets and stairs. A flimsy kicker bends or loses its adjustment, so check that the head feels solid and the locking mechanism holds.
Power Stretchers and Seam Tools
For rooms wider than roughly 12 to 15 feet, a knee kicker alone leaves carpet that ripples within a year. A power stretcher uses a long pole brace to apply even tension across the whole room. Roberts also makes seam irons and seaming tape used to join two carpet pieces with a heat-activated bond. A quality seam iron holds a stable temperature, typically in the 250 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit working range, so the adhesive melts evenly without scorching the backing.
Vinyl, Laminate, and LVP Cutters
The shift toward luxury vinyl plank and laminate over the last decade pushed Roberts to expand its cutting tools, and this is now a strong part of the catalog.
- Laminate/vinyl cutters: Guillotine-style shear cutters slice planks cleanly with no dust and no noise, which is ideal for indoor work and apartments where a power saw would be disruptive. Look for a blade rated for the plank thickness you are using, usually up to about 1/2 inch.
- Utility and hook blades: Sheet vinyl and thin LVP often cut fastest with a sharp utility knife and a straightedge. Roberts sells blades and knives designed for repeated scoring without dulling quickly.
- Undercut and jamb saws: These let you trim door casings so planks slide underneath for a finished look instead of an awkward caulked gap.
A shear cutter’s biggest advantage is speed on a quiet job site. The trade-off is that it struggles with intricate notches around pipes or outlets, where you will still reach for a jigsaw or oscillating tool.
Trowels, Adhesives, and Prep Tools
Glue-down installs of vinyl, sheet goods, and some engineered products live or die on the trowel. Roberts notched trowels come in several notch sizes, and matching the notch to the adhesive spec is critical, because too little adhesive starves the bond and too much squeezes up through the seams. The product or adhesive manufacturer will specify a notch dimension, and using the wrong one is one of the most common DIY failures.
Beyond trowels, the brand carries rollers for pressing flooring into adhesive and removing trapped air, plus seam-sealing supplies. A 75 to 100 pound floor roller is often recommended for sheet vinyl, and Roberts offers hand rollers and J-rollers for the edges and seams a heavy roller cannot reach.
Knee Pads, Tape, and Accessories
Flooring is brutal on your knees, and a good pair of knee pads is not a luxury when you spend a full day on a slab. Roberts knee pads use gel or layered foam with a hard or soft cap depending on the surface. For finished floors, a non-marring soft cap prevents scuffing the very floor you just installed.
The brand also sells double-sided tapes, seam tapes, transition strips, and moisture barriers. These consumables matter more than people expect. A cheap seaming tape that fails will telegraph a visible line across a carpet within months, while a quality tape disappears.
Pros and Cons of Roberts Flooring Tools
No single brand is perfect for every job, so weigh these honestly against your project.
Pros
- Wide catalog covering carpet, vinyl, and laminate from one familiar brand, which simplifies building a kit.
- Mid-tier pricing that is accessible to homeowners without dropping to disposable quality.
- Carpet tools follow proven professional designs, so technique transfers directly.
- Strong availability at major home centers and online, with easy access to replacement blades and parts.
Cons
- For high-volume professionals, top-end specialist brands can offer more refined power stretchers and seam irons.
- Some bundled accessory kits include consumables you may not need, slightly padding the price.
- The breadth of the catalog means quality varies between flagship carpet tools and budget add-ons, so read reviews per item.
What to Evaluate Before You Buy
Start with your flooring type, because it dictates the tools you actually need. A laminate floating-floor job needs a cutter, a tapping block, a pull bar, and spacers, but no knee kicker. A wall-to-wall carpet job flips that list entirely. Buying a giant all-in-one kit before you know your material is the fastest way to waste money.
Next, judge the build. Pick up the tool if you can, and check that adjustment mechanisms lock firmly, blades are replaceable rather than fixed, and handles feel rigid under load. For anything you will use repeatedly, prioritize replaceable wear parts, since a tool you can re-blade or re-pad outlasts one you throw away when one piece dulls.
Finally, be realistic about rent-versus-buy. A power stretcher and seam iron used once are often cheaper to rent for a weekend than to own. Hand tools you will reach for on every project, like a quality knee kicker, utility knife, trowel, and knee pads, are worth owning outright. Match the spend to how often the tool will actually leave the shelf, and Roberts gives you reasonable options at most points along that spectrum.
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