When you lay a carpet, you don't use the verb mutlh; the appropriate verb is vel ("cover, coat, mask"). One can say rav vel tlhIm ("the carpet covers the floor"). To to say "lay a carpet," one says "use a carpet to cover the floor," or rav velmeH tlhIm lo'. The person who lays the carpet is a velwI' (literally "coverer, coater, masker"). You might think that the velwI' is the carpet itself. That would make sense, but it doesn't work that way. Maltz commented that Klingon rugs are primarily decorative. The idea of a fabric floor covering being thick or soft was just bizarre to him.