Warning: quit power stretching every carpet and watch your callbacks drop

I see guys on every crew yanking carpet with all their weight and calling it a tight install, then acting shocked when it ripples in 6 months. Carpet needs to relax, not get strangled. I run a 3 man crew in Boise and we started using a power stretcher set to just enough tension to kill the wrinkle, not max it out. Our callback rate went from about 1 in 12 jobs down to 1 in 40 over the past 8 months. The trick is letting the carpet sit in the room for a day at house temp before you touch it. Pulling cold carpet tight just means it grows later when the heat kicks on. Anybody else notice the same thing or am I the odd one out here?

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kai4631mo ago

Gotta disagree on the power stretcher part. Setting it to barely enough tension is how you get wrinkles back in high traffic spots, not 6 months but 6 weeks in some homes. Carpet has to be stretched tight enough to stay flat after it settles, and "just enough to kill the wrinkle" leaves slack hiding under the surface. The room temp thing is real though, cold carpet pulls weird and grows later, no argument there. Your callback numbers are solid but blaming the power stretcher for it seems off, the guys maxing it out are probably just skipping the acclimate step.

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