When I started writing this column 18 years ago, my mentor, Al Wahnon asked me one question: “Do you have enough material to keep doing this?” My response was: “Until the day I die.” I trusted that the fodder for this column would continue and I wasn’t wrong. It seems like the insanity of some of the issues is getting worse. Two cases in point follow.

An inspector calls and wants to know if there is an industry standard or any information in print published by the industry, that the room a carpet is to be installed in has to be empty first. I told him that to the best of my knowledge there was no standard, no one has it in print but common sense should dictate that the room has to be empty to install the carpet. In this case it wasn’t and the consumer was complaining about buckles and wrinkles in the carpet. Gee, I wonder why?

This was replacement carpet. The room had flooded. New carpet had to be installed. There was room to move the furniture out through a sliding glass door as well as into other adjoining rooms. There was a pool table. The installer put it on dollies and moved it from one side to the other as well as moving the furnishings from one side to the other. One side of the room was installed, the furniture moved to that side and the process continued. How, I ask you, could one expect to properly install carpet this way? They can’t and it is ludicrous to think so. Standard or not, common sense has to prevail. There was no way the carpet could be power stretched or even stretched with some degree of tension with a knee kicker while a room full of furniture and a pool table sat on half of it. How do things like this happen? I can’t phantom even remotely thinking that someone would believe it was alright to do this. Now whose fault is this? Well, the installer should never had installed the carpet with furniture in the room and his doing so is acceptance so he is the one to blame. Apparently, he thought is was OK to do this and told the consumer this. Can it be fixed? Certainly. The room now has to be completely emptied and the carpet reinstalled so that it can be fitted and tensioned properly. Is there more to this story? There is but the point is, regardless of the circumstances, no one should ever install carpet in a furnished room. I’m sure it happens but it shouldn’t. No dealer or installer should ever entertain this practice. This is installation suicide.


Next. I get a call from a consumer who has just had new carpet and vinyl installed in their home. They bought from a dealer who came highly recommended from several different sources. The vinyl in the kitchen was installed crooked. The stairs are cut short on the edges and the carpet has been stapled to fasten it. At the edges of the upstairs hallway next to railing posts the carpet has been turned under and stapled. This has left dimples in the carpet on the stairs and hallway. The dealer is acting like he’s doing these people a favor by coming to look at the problem. He offers to replace the vinyl with a remnant that he has. The carpet issue requires replacement on the stairs because there is no way to pull the carpet over to fill the gap at the edges. The carpet should not be stapled and if it is ( and we all know this is done) the staples should be up under the nosing and deep into the join of the tread and riser. The dimples from the staples in the upper hallway can, hopefully, be removed by carefully pulling up the carpet and turning and tacking it. The dimples may relax out but if not they can be removed with a Jiffy Steamer as long as the carpet is not damaged in the pull-up process.

The consumer laments that this has been a bad experience. Is this the way carpet is supposed to be installed? He asks. We covered up nice hardwood floors to do this because we wanted carpet. Well, I guess they’ll think again about using carpet in the future and trusting a representative of the industry (the dealer) to show what a great product it really is.

These two cases should make you all think about the reasons carpet keeps losing market share. Is it because the industry makes lousy products? Absolutely not! It’s because ignorance, stupidity and idiocy keep messing things up. Again I must invoke the statement from Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

Every week I get calls and emails from residential and commercial end users with horror stories similar to these. I also talk to several dealers every week and ask them how’s business. No one is really complaining and often the response is good or better. The problem is how you do business. Here’s a tip. Be the best, charge the most, do everything by the book and far beyond, operate a class business, help your customers, sell what works, get the best installers and pay them to not make mistakes, and look the part of the professional you say you are and you’ll make more money than ever before. Don’t let stupid stuff like this undermine your business and our industry. If you need more cheap help buy my new book “Flooring: Problems to Profits.” It’s got tons of useful stuff to keep you out of trouble and help you make more money.

Correction: In my column entitled “Stay off the carpet” I stand corrected. CRI-105 states to stay off the carpet for 24 hours after it is glued down. I said there wasn’t a standard and there is. Sorry.