Just realized I was stretching carpet wrong for 6 years

I always started in the middle of the room and worked toward the walls, like my old boss taught me back in Phoenix. Then last week a customer's seam split right down the center and a guy from the supply house told me you're supposed to start at the longest wall and work outward so the tension pulls even both ways. Has anyone else had a moment where a simple trick you thought was standard turned out to be backwards?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse9883d ago

Hold up though, starting in the middle isn't always wrong. Depends on the room shape and the carpet type. Some materials work better from the center to keep the pattern straight. Your old boss might have had a method that worked fine for years, just got unlucky with that last job.

williamd702d ago

Yeah, I gotta push back on that, @jesse988. Starting in the middle is almost always a bad idea unless you're installing a patterned carpet that needs dead-center alignment. For straight pile or berber, a middle start means you're fighting two seams going opposite directions, which doubles your chance of a visible line or a buckle. Most rooms aren't perfectly square either, so you end up with a crooked edge at the walls if you don't have a straight line to work off of. Sounds like your old boss was just used to doing it that way, not that it was actually the best method.