Here's a question faxed to me about a wrinkling carpet. This gentleman was concerned about a pure fiber waffle cushion with a synthetic backed broadloom installed over it. The carpet, he noted, had wrinkled within a few months. After re-stretch, the problem re-occurred. The dealer replaced the pad with a firmer variety and the problems went away. This would have meant a third pull up and re-installation. Let's look at what might have happened here.

The first problem might be improper acclimation of the carpet to the environment. After the broadloom is installed it has a chance to relax after being stretched. Once it does this and finds its "natural" position, it can expand and wrinkle. If the carpet is not power stretched, even if it is acclimated, it will not have been tensioned properly and can wrinkle. If the pad used under the broadloom is too thick, the carpet will not properly engage the tackless pins and instead of a firm perpendicular engagement, will cascade over the too-thick pad and not be tensioned properly, which will cause wrinkles.

If the pad is too thick and too soft, the carpet will flex vertically. The backing can elasticize, especially if stretched tight, loosening the broadloom by compromising its dimensional stability, thus making the carpet wrinkle. If the tackless strip does not have the correct length pins, the carpet can come loose and wrinkle. If the tackless strip is too far away from the wall (it should be approximately half the thickness of the broadloom), the carpet will not be anchored properly and it can wrinkle.

If the product is not stretched properly and it is wet cleaned, especially in hot, humid weather, it can wrinkle. This is especially true of nylon which will absorb moisture and allow the broadloom to expand and contract. Depending on how it is constructed and tufted, this can cause wrinkles. Polyester and polypropylene are affected much less by the moisture, but the heat will relax the backing which can also cause wrinkling.

If the carpet is poorly constructed using high filler loads in the backing, the product will not inherently possess a high degree of dimensional stability. When this type of broadloom is power stretched, as all carpet should be, it can actually create problems by elasticizing the product, or making it stretchy. This happens when the power stretching pulls on the primary and secondary backings. This will crack or break apart the 500 and 600 part filler loaded latex laminating the backing. At this point, you have two woven backings with an inherent stretch in them and, like tectonic plates, they are set free. The power stretching makes them "stretchier," causing them to wrinkle.

Because you are a good retailer and/or installer and insist on taking care of your customer, go back and re-stretch the carpet and cut off an inch or so. It happens again, you go back and cut off another inch or so. Hey, what's going on here?

DIMENSIONALLY UNSTABLE

What's going on here is a compromised latex which creates a dimensionally unstable carpet. And your power stretching is actually making matters worse! So if you follow the industry standard with this type of broadloom, you are actually going to cause wrinkles and several call backs until you wind up having to replace it.

With this type of carpet, and saying this makes me cringe, you're better off knee kicking it in. The trouble is, in the field it's not always easy to determine what to do. So, to be on the safe side and within the dictates of the industry, keep power stretching. This gentleman also stated he didn't remember having these wrinkling problems with jute backed carpet. He's right. They were a different animal with different physical properties. They weren't a thermoplastic which had elasticity, so they didn't wrinkle. However, they would shrink when overwet, cause cellulosic browning and create a number of different problems synthetics don't.

He asked if there was an incompatibility with synthetic backings and rubber pad. The answer to this is no. These two together will not create wrinkling. He also asked if there was a positive or negative repulsion. The answer to this is also no. There is no molecular, chemical or physical repulsion between the two materials. The biggest factor is getting a carpet which is manufactured properly relative to the backing material and the finishing agents used in it and, secondly, a broadloom pad which has the proper density and thickness to prevent vertical and lateral movement of the carpet. As long as you have a dimensionally stable broadloom, a firm and fully supporting foundational pad of proper density and thickness, the proper tackless strip placed the proper distance from the wall for the carpet being installed, adequate power stretching, tensioning and tucking of the carpet onto the tackless strip, you won't have any problems. That's a lot of proper things, isn't it? But you've got to have them all to prevent this problem.