chuckography

Stretching removes wrinkles.........

 I suspect I am not the first person to have wall-to-wall carpet "relax" and lose tension.

When that happens, a "long ridge" wrinkle rises and slowly grows longer and larger.

The cause usually is not having it installed tight enough.

The cure is to have a flooring pro come by and re-stretch it.

He came by yesterday and assured me we did not have to empty the three affected rooms of all the furniture.

Well, that was good news!

Some of it was still in the same place it was placed on the newly-installed carpeting about 10 - 11 years ago.

My desk, for example, needed only to be swiveled sideways. The rest was simply moved away from the affected areas.

Installers use a clever device called a Kick Tool that grips the carpet and then a strong kick with a knee pulls it toward the wall.

Mike's right knee probably had calluses from doing this for many, many years.

I would be crippled if I tried that move even once.

As he moved two bookcases filled with CDs, I remembered that I had NOT moved them when I re-painted the room.

No problem. Mike moved them back in place after tightening the carpet.

Mike was here about 2.5 hours and when he finished, the carpet wrinkles had been re-stretched and smoothed out.

He said my carpeting was in good shape but he might have just said that when he found out I had bought it from the place where he used to work.

And no, he had not done the initial installation!

He's retired now and keeps in shape by pounding his knee into the gripping tool and slamming carpet up against the wall as often as he can.

Mike showed me that actual inches were removed from the edges after he nudged it forward to take up the slack.

He then cut that excess off with his carpet knife (Well, duh, that's what I've always called it) er, his utility knife then tamped it down onto the perimeter tack strips for a tight fit.

We rolled and toted back the furniture that had been moved out of his way.

We swung the desk back in place and I look forward to redoing the various plugs and connections that had been taken loose.

(That was an easy task because he was mindful of that when he had moved it.

This was not his" first rodeo, "after all.
Reach Mike the wrinkle-remover at mikew8638@ gmail.com or (843) 926-5781.

(Click on the links and photos for more details.)

I had visited a brother-in-law's home and noticed he had several areas of wrinkles (loosened) carpet in his Great Room. Then, later, at a Thanksgiving meal, I saw they were gone.

I should have asked then if he had replaced the carpet.

Thanks for stopping by to help move furniture and learn how to remove wrinkles.

.

Labels: carpet installer's Kick Tool, Carpet re-stretching, knee calluses, moving furniture, not his first rodeo., sliding things sideways

posted by chuckography @ 2:11 PM