Q:

Can carpet scraps be used to repair existing carpet?

I recently had new carpet installed and the installers just left the scraps in my garage. I have several that are of somewhat appreciable sizes, the smallest being 3'x5'.
I'm weighing the pros and cons of keeping it (storage space is a premium at my house), so I'm curious if it is worth keeping for partial replacement, say if a stain occurred I could cut out a square of the existing carpet and install this.

A:

Yes, a skilled flooring installer can patch in carpet to repair damage. It needs to be oriented with respect to the "grain" and pattern-matched. 
Chances are you won't want to do that more than once or twice during the life of the carpet, since worn carpet tends to appear quite different from new carpet, diminishing the value of the repair. If you're a careful person you won't need to have repairs done often anyway, and if you're not you'll have too many stains to bother repairing any.
I'd only keep two or three of the largest scraps. Use the rest as utility rugs or recycle them. 

