There are far to many problems resulting from ignorance involving floor covering material claims, complaints and failures. Ignorance is not stupidity. Ignorance is not knowing but it can be overcome by learning, accepted as help, eliminating the chance of repeating the same mistakes. Stupidity is not knowing, not wanting to learn and not accepting help or responsibility for your actions leaving one to make the same mistakes again and blaming someone or something else for them.

Most of the problems we encounter are the result of ignorance, not stupidity. Almost every problem you encounter could have been prevented had you known what should have been done. Take the case of wrinkling carpet. This problem confounds more dealers and installers than any other single problem I’ve heard of. Why? Because once you install the carpet and it looks good and there are no complaints of any kind for it, out of the blue comes a complaint for wrinkles. You restretch the carpet only to have the same problem come back again. What went wrong? Is it the carpet, the customer or the installer? We all know or should anyway, that the carpet industry says you must acclimate the product prior to installing it. In a perfect world that may work but I don’t know of anyone, particularly in the residential installation business, that does this. Everything is quick and just in time. The carpet is ordered, arrives, gets sent to the jobsite and installed. No time to look at it, no time to acclimate it, not time to stretch it in properly. So how can you avoid having a problem or being blamed for a problem if you don’t know what you can do to minimize or prevent it from occurring? First you have to understand the science of what’s taking place and force it to respond the way you want it to, kind of like bending the inevitable circumstances, which can be quite simple.

You have to try to remove anything that can make the carpet react other than the way you want it to. If it’s a stretch in installation you should use a very low profile, high density pad which is not higher than the wood of the tackstrip. This will most likely cost you more but it can eliminate costly complaints and for an extra 20 bucks why wouldn’t you want to do it? Just charge more for the pad, and don’t be stupid and say you can’t, you can, if you know how to sell. It doesn’t make much difference what the pad is made of as long as it will yield better performance and allow you to prevent a wrinkling and buckling problem. All pad manufacturers have these types of products and would be happy to sell them to you. The pad should also be anchored to the floor and my preference is to glue it not staple it, I’d want it perfectly flat with no chance of compromising the carpet laying flat on it.

The carpet is now laying perfectly flat. Power stretched properly it is also tensioned adequately. The tackstrip should also be of high quality and suited for whatever carpet it’s going to be holding. Thicker carpets require higher pins that will more adequately hold the stretch and hold it in place. The tackstrip should also be placed the proper distance from the wall and the pins shouldn’t be flattened out when it’s nailed down. The fewer pins you have holding the carpet the greater the chances of it loosening up. A good rule of thumb for placing the tackstrip is half the thickness of the carpet away from the wall, this should be measured. You should also get yourself a copy of CRI - 105 The Standard for Installation of Residential Carpet, which alone should at the very least enlighten you. This will show you the proper technique for how the carpet should be stretched.

Once the carpet is properly held in place, snugly tensioned and attached to the tackstrip and not laying on a too thick pad, it should stay that way and not wrinkle. Even when the manufacturer uses a wider pic secondary backing you can force the carpet to react the way you want it to. I’m not saying you won’t ever have a wrinkling complaint again but you’ll sure bend the chances in your favor.

Now you can’t keep this information, which I must have repeated at least a half dozen times in 17 years of writing this column, from your installers. You have to share it with them and you have to pay them enough to do all this stuff without cutting corners. You may have been ignorant because you didn’t know but now you do. Don’t be stupid and not do anything about it. If you want a copy of CRI-105 contact CRI at www.carpet-rug.com or call them at 800-882-8846.