A room measures a few inches over 12 feet. Carpet comes in 12 foot widths.

How many inches do you normally stretch carpet with a power stretcher? Is it OK to buy the carpet say 3-4 inches too short?

Three to four inches is getting up there. You better ask the carpet installers, as different types of carpet are easier to stretch. Also look at some 13'2" goods. We had some pretty sharp rental house style carpet at the carpet store I worked in that came in 13'2" rolls.

I believe you can get a special order carpet that is 16 ft.

Another option is put down a border carpet that is 12 inches wide and then lay the "field" carpet in the middle of the Frame.

Tough question. I think it depends on what the carpet is made of. I would think that wool and cotton would stretch more and Nylon and poly wouldn't stretch very much. There is carpet that is 15' wide.

Me I would use fat 9/16 thick 4/5 inch high base board molding with shoe molding or 1/4 round over the carpet edge to take up the couple of inches.

Of course you can do another type of flooring like wood laminate tile or?

You can also use my trick of high traffic areas in laminate and low traffic areas in carpet.

Fake turf comes in rolls of 15' wide as a standard. Want to have a putting green indoors?

"4!"

I would not try to stretch it too tight even though carpet tends to loosen up over time and get those wrinkles.

I have friends that do carpet full time and a couple inches in 12 foot is not unheard of but it depends on the carpet itself. Some you can do it, some you cant.

The carpet can be 11'9" and be deemed 12' carpet. So, if your room is 12'3", you are now stretching 6"... way too much.

I bought some carpet that was 3 inches too short. Couldn't get it too stretch that far. 1", easy. 2", good stretcher can do it. 3", now you might have a hard time.

Just buy a 13' roll (even though it is getting rare). My local carpet store says it is either 12 or 15 now.

I build out the baseboard when faced with that. A 1x, extra moulding, shoe or quarter round, whatever it takes.

If you own the place for any time you will need to replace it in the future, and the carpet will still be 12 feet wide.

Brad, most carpets have a pattern to them, when you cut and seam them, you match up the pattern. Think of wallpaper, its the same thing. Other carpets dont have a pattern and they have other tricks like making a zig zaged seam to make it blend in. You also avoid walkways in rooms so when the carpet wears, it wont wear down and show a seam. There are alot of tricks to seams, its not just cutting the carpet and joining it where you want to.