TIL a 30 year installer told me to stop cutting pad flush at the wall and it fixed my buckling problem

Betty Barnes · 2026-09-24T11:05:04.350646+00:00

I was stretching a berber in a rental unit off Elm St when this older guy named Ray who I sometimes sub for watched me trim pad flush to the baseboard. He told me to hold it back about a quarter inch and tuck the carpet under the wall instead, and honestly I brushed it off at first. Three months later that same unit had a hump near the slider and I yanked the pad back and the carpet relaxed right out. He explained that pad flush against the tackstrip pinches the stretch and gives the carpet nowhere to go in heat. I redid the whole thing with a 1/4 inch gap and it has held flat through one full summer now. Has anyone else had a guy show them this the hard way, or do you all cut pad tight and just deal with it?

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TIL a 30 year installer told me to stop cutting pad flush at the wall and it fixed my buckling problem | Carpet Installers - Rigidtalk