Carpet Wrinkles and Proper Wrinkle Correction

Your new carpet has been installed for a few months and now there are so many carpet wrinkles that you can hardly find your wrinkled Shar-Pei dog among the carpet wrinkles.

Carpet Wrinkles Removed and Came Back

Perhaps you already had the installer back to remove the carpet wrinkles. He pulled out his trusty knee kicker and in a few minutes the ripples were gone. Unfortunately within a few weeks the carpet wrinkles started to appear again.

The installer returns again and pulls on the edge of the carpet and tells you that there must be a problem with the carpet because the back will come off.

The dealer files a claim with the manufacture stating that the back of the carpet is delaminated. But is it?

The manufacturer sends the Weinheimer Group or another certified carpet inspector to your house and maybe they too find that the carpet wrinkles are manufacturing delamination, though it is more likely they will find that the carpet wrinkles are an installation problem.

Carpet wrinkles, ripples, buckles whichever term you choose to use, will rarely occur with a properly stretched carpet. Stretching a carpet properly is more than kicking it with your knee or using a stretcher head with a spike on one end. Proper stretching requires the proper use of a power carpet stretcher.

When a carpet is properly power stretched during the original installation you should not end up with carpet wrinkles and the following will occur during installation:

• All furniture will be out of the room.
• The existing tackstrip needs to be checked to make sure it is in good condition and has the correct gully between the tackstrip and the wall.
• Cushion needs to be installed so that the pad seams do not line up with carpet seams. The cushion should normally be no thicker than 7/16”. Too thick of cushion can cause carpet wrinkles.
• Tubes are run from one-side-to-the-other-side of the room. These tubes are attached to a stretcher head with lots of teeth and a long handle for leverage. The power is the carpet installer pushing down on this leveraged handle.
• Using the power stretcher, not a knee-kicker, the carpet is to be stretched 1% to 1½% in each direction in each room. The four way stretch method is to be used. Stretchers with a spike on the end are not to be used.
• A knee kicker will be used only to set the starting wall and make adjustments in conjunction with the power stretcher and for small areas where the power stretcher will not fit.
• Edges of carpet that will be placed under a metal strip should be sealed with
• seam sealer adhesive to resist raveling. Exposed edges fitted to a hard surface
• flooring should also be sealed.
• The carpet needs to be installed to the specifications of the carpet manufacturer and/or the Carpet and Rug Institute. The CRI is the standards that most carpet manufacturers adhere to. When installed to these standards you will rarely have carpe wrinkles unless there is site related damage such as flooding, severe pet damage or improper cleaning, or a manufacturer related backing problem.

Properly Re-stretching Carpet to Remove Carpet Wrinkles

So the installer didn’t properly stretch the carpet the first time, carpet wrinkles developed and now the carpet needs re-stretched. This time the following should happen.

• All furniture will be out of the room.
• The carpet is taken up from the tackstrip around the entire room
• The existing tackstrip needs to be checked to make sure it is in good condition and has the correct gully between the tackstrip and the wall.
• Seams between joining rooms may need to be taken apart.
• Cushion needs to be checked to make sure it is installed correctly so that the pad seams do not line up with carpet seams. The cushion should normally be no thicker than 7/16”. Too thick of cushion can cause carpet wrinkles.
• Tubes that run from one-side-to-the-other-side of the room. These tubes are attached to a stretcher head with lots of teeth and a long handle for leverage that the carpet installer pushes down.
• Using the power stretcher, not a knee-kicker, the carpet is to be stretched 1% to 1½% in each direction in each room. The four way stretch method is to be used. Stretchers with a spike on the end are not to be used.
• The carpet may need some remodeling as the wrinkled carpet will likely be stretched past some doorjambs or other areas.
• Edges of carpet that will be placed under a metal strip should be sealed with seam sealer adhesive to resist raveling. Exposed edges fitted to a hard surface flooring should also be sealed.

If the carpet is installed properly or corrected properly you will no longer loose your Shar-Pei dog among the carpet wrinkles.

Carpet and Rug Institute Installation Standards 2011