Carpeting is great when you first get it, but after a couple of years it starts to get rumpled up, and only gets worse over time. Many of our customers have asked us about this problem, so we decided to address it in this blog entry. Don’t worry, you don’t need to replace your carpet entirely. Over the years I’ve become quite handy at fixing this kind of thing, so here are a few tips that might help you out.
- Use a power stretcher (which you can buy or rent). You may need to get a kicker and a few other tools as well (just ask your local handyman). Beware that a kicker alone will not get out all the kinks, and that you could hurt your knee if you don’t use the kicker properly.
- Pull up the carpet around the edges, while making sure that you don’t pull apart the seams (it would require different tools to put these back together). You might also need to take up the base board if it wasn’t installed properly the first time.
- You may need to take apart some of the seams, so that you don’t stretch the carpet too long. Only cut off the amount needed. Be discerning! It won’t grow back (like your hair), so if you take too much off you may need a new carpet.
- Using a hot seamer, you need to seam back together those areas you took apart. Ensure that the seams fit tightly and that they don’t overlap, or it will be obvious that an amateur repair took place.
- Use the stretcher and kicker to stretch it back into place. The carpet should be stretched at an angle only one way while the other side remains straight.
- Cut the edges down, push the carpet down, and then re-install the baseboard if you had to remove it. Be cautious about cutting the edging too short.
Hopefully this brief guide will help you, but this will depend to some extent on your own experience! My 35 years of experience have certainly been very helpful. If you’re worried about damaging the carpet, it may be better to leave it to an expert. After all, a damaged carpet would just cost more to repair.
Call Pablo at Curlys Carpet Repair if you’d like a professional to do it for you. In the end this may just save the time and hassle.
