Carpet wrinkles everywhere!
As carpet cleaners in Fredericksburg Virginia, naturally we see a lot of carpet. One of the most common things we come across is wall to wall carpet that have unsightly wrinkles in them, not only does this look terrible but it can be a trip hazard as well. Leaving these wrinkles in the carpet for extended lengths of time can cause permanent damage to the carpet, including uneven wear or delamination (when the carpet backing and the secondary backing separate from each other) once the carpet becomes delamaninated the wrinkled area will most likely still be slightly visible , even after the carpets are stretched tightly.
Wrinkle in a closet
Why does the carpet get wrinkles?
So you buy new carpet and after the installation you stand back and marvel at how much better it makes your home look, you can’t help but to ask yourself why you didn’t do it sooner. You’re so happy you cheerfully write the check and even throw in a tip for the young man because he did such a great job. Now after a couple of years pass, you start to notice wrinkles appearing and ask yourself why? Some folks think maybe it was from the guy who cleaned the carpets last, but that is not the case at all. The carpet begins to move at pivot points, like at the top of the stairs where people turn to go down a hall, or in traffic lanes. Dragging heavy furniture over the carpet can also cause loosely installed carpet to move.
Over 90% of carpet is not installed to the manufactures specifications, unbelievable right? I really don’t understand why this industry is like this, but why should a good paying customer have to pay again in two years to have the carpets re-installed again properly, makes no sense, but i can almost guarantee the reason is money.
The retail carpet industry is very competitive, every carpet salesman is trying to convince potential customers why they should buy carpet from them. The lower price just always wins, especially when selling to builders and property managers. The faster they can get the carpet installed the faster they can get to the next unsuspecting customer. The installers just throw the carpet down and use a knee kicker to push it over the tack strip and tuck it under the base molding, it is impossible to achieve the manufacturers recommendations regarding installation, using a knee kicker. The proper way to get carpet as tight as it should be is to use a power stretcher. This tool has long steel tubes that run across the room to push off the opposite wall using leverage to pull the carpet very tight. Using this tool is more time consuming than using a knee kicker, so installers don’t use them. It’s not even an option you could request, could you imagine a salesman saying “I can put new carpet in your house for this great price, but if you want it done right it will cost a lot more”
The power stretcher is the proper tool for installing carpet the right way.
What can be done to get the wrinkles out?
As much as the industry standard makes me angry, I shouldn’t complain as it brings us a lot of business re-installing carpets the correct way…using a power stretcher. You would be amazed at how much excess carpet we cut off around the perimeter of a room after power stretching, quite often a good inch or even two. If a customer has a hole or burn mark in the carpet they want repaired but don’t have any spare carpet, quite often I can stretch the carpet enough to get a donor piece out of the edge, cool…right!
If carpet cleaning is also being done at the same time we recommend to do the stretching first and then the cleaning.
