What are the steps to carpeting a concrete floor, like a basement floor?

wall to wall carpeting for a living room or a bedroom. What materials do I need, what tools? What is the cost?

It depends on the type of carpet you are going to put down. If the carpeting you are looking to laydown is a berber or indoor/outdoor rated gluedown, you don't have to worry about padding or tackstrips. If you are looking for a padded berber, plush or texture then there is more materials that is needed for the job, such as the padding, tackstrips, kneekickers, ect. I would go to your nearest carpet/home improvement store to start pricing the exact type of carpet you are looking for, while you are there, look at the how to books for a step by step guide for installation, such as Flooring 1-2-3 by Home Depot. It has step by step instructions, a time frame for installation and the tools you'll need.

You will probably want to put a moisture barrier down first.
Easy fix, buy carpet with the pad already attached.
Use a utility knife or carpet knife to trim around the edges next to the walls.
Cost depends on how high quality of carpet you pick.

if you have to do it yourself...

first get a basement waterproofing paint and paint the floor, don't go the plastic vapor barrier route.

second measure all the walls, twists and turns etc and get the running footage of the permiter of the room and divide by 4 and round up. this is how many tack strips you need.

third, for about every 10 strips you need 1 tube of PL400. glue the beveled side TOWARD the wall and keep it about 1/2in. gap.

fourth get a GOOD padding. carpet quality is a moot point if you put in crappy padding. big pieces are good, small are bad, so dont use up scrap to save cash. tape all joints with duct tape.

fifth, rent a carpet kicker, a stair tool, and if its a big piece of carpet you will need a power stretcher. start with the longest uninterrupted wall and use the stair tool to force the carpet behind the tack strip. i usually walk along the strip to get a good bite. after that do yourself a favor and trim the carpet to about 2 or 3 inches more than what you need. its a LOT easier to work with. then kick or power stretch it to the opposite wall. work the carpet by stretching or kicking toward the doorways and any irregular walls. use a new blade in a razor knife and trim slowly and careful between the wall and the tack strip. replace the blade as needed, they are cheap and a sharp blade does a better job.TAKE YOUR TIME because any 'oops' will show.

the easiest thing to do is to do everything up to installing the carpet and hire out the instillation. find a someone that does it for a living and see if they do side work.

unless you are just putting down a giant rug. you should hire a pro, it is hard to stretch carpet if you dont have the right knowledge/tools.
other than that you just need tack strip, pad and carpet