Frequently Asked Questions

"Why are my carpets getting wrinkles?"

Answer:

In most cases it is because the carpet was not installed properly with a power stretcher. The installer may have used a knee kicker instead. A knee kicker does not stretch carpet. It can move it, but it cannot put enough tension on it, especially when the carpet is new because the carpet is very stiff. The other issue is that in most cases the carpet is installed after sitting in a cold warehouse with no time to acclimate to the home. So, the carpet is cold and contracted when it is installed. After it warms up in the home over the next couple of days, it will expand and lose all tension. Over time, your carpet will continue to expand due to foot traffic that stretches the backing. If there is no tension on the carpet, it will begin to wrinkle. In most cases, however, it is an installation error. We use a power stretcher and guarantee the stretch for the life of the carpet, so you will never have to do it again. If for any reason you do, you will not have to pay for it.  

"Does all the furniture in the room need to be removed?"

Answer for concrete/radiant heated subfloor:

Yes - It is best to have the rooms cleared of all the furniture. If the room is big enough to move a couple of large pieces of furniture to one side of the room as we stretch the other side of the room, then that will work sometimes.  When we stretch carpet over concrete, we must use metal bars with our power stretcher. These bars extend from the wall we are stretching away from to the wall we are stretching to (perpendicular to the wrinkles) so there can be no furniture in the middle of the room or along the walls.

Answer for radiant heat subfloor - Radiant Heated floors must be treated the same as a concrete subfloor. This is because we cannot use the adapter on our power stretcher that we use on wood subfloors that eliminates the need for the bars. The adapter can cause damage to the radiant heat water tubes causing a huge problem. 

Answer for wood subfloor

No - It is not necessary to remove all the furniture from the room. This is because the adapter we use for our power stretcher on a wood subfloor (Stinger) pierces down to the wood subfloor and creates an anchor for our power stretcher to work from rather than using bars across the room.

Wood subfloor – House- When we go into a room to stretch the carpet, all the work we do is done around the perimeter of the room and that is where we need access. We ask that you move all the small items out of the room and clear the tops of any of the larger pieces left in the rooms. If you store anything under the beds, we ask that you clear everything so we can move the beds if necessary. Any of the pieces of furniture up against the walls that we need access to must be moved. The only wall where the furniture can remain in place is the wall where we put Teflon sliders under those larger pieces and move them 5 feet away from the walls toward the center of the room. That gives us enough room to get the power stretcher in that 5-foot cleared space and it is strong enough to pull the carpet right under the furniture.

"Do I need to empty the closets?"

Answer:

In most cases the closets should be cleared of all items on the floor and any hanging clothes that hang lower than five feet from the carpet. We will be working on our knees and cannot have clothes in the way. If you are unsure, go into your closet and get on your knees. If the clothes are in your face, then the clothes should be moved. If the closets are on the wall that we are stretching away from, then there is no need to empty the closets. When we stretch a room, in most cases we stretch the carpet toward the 2 walls that are furthest away from the doorway of the room. This is because in most cases the room is joined to a hallway that has carpet also. If we stretch the carpet toward the doorway rather than away from it, we will have to cut the seam at the door which adds additional cost to the job. In homes where the doorway of the room we are stretching is joined to a hard surface like wood or tile, then we can stretch the room in either direction without additional expense.

"How long will the carpet stretch last? / Do you guarantee the stretch?"

 Answer:

The stretch is guaranteed for the life of the carpet. You should never have to do it again. However, if you do, we will do it at no charge.

 "Do I have to measure the whole room or just where the wrinkles are?"

 Answer:

Yes, measure the whole room. Some people mistakenly think that the carpet is just loose where the wrinkles are. The fact is the whole room is loose. The wrinkles will develop in random areas in the room. Sometimes it will be in a part of the room that gets a beam of sunlight. The sun heats up the carpet and so it will bend in the part of room where the backing is more pliable due to the warmth of the sun. Sometimes wrinkles will develop in traffic areas because the backing of the carpet in those areas is softer and more pliable due to heavy traffic. We stretch the whole room so it is done properly, and we can guarantee it for the life of the carpet.

 * Click on the button below to see our stretching diagrams that explain how the process works when there is furniture in the rooms.