Stretching carpets – Looking for a Miracle

I do a lot of work for a number of home letting agents in Northampton, this work ranges from small repairs to replacements of the carpets in the whole property.  Last week I was sent an email asking me to price to stretch the carpets in a flat.   I visited the flat and was horrified by what I saw.  The property was about 3 years old and the carpets looked like they were fitted when the property was new (not by me or my company I must add).  The wrinkles and crinkles were so bad in this carpet and the underlay that I had been called in about 3 years old too late.   I could have stretched the carpets but they would have never laid flat.  Once a wrinkle has been embedded in the carpet and underlay for more than a few months then no matter how good your carpet fitter is, it will be almost impossible to remove.

In this case the owner should have got the company fitting this carpet back within weeks, (if not days) to come back and stretch the carpets, in my opinion the carpets were never stretched tight enough in the first places.  A carpet is meant to be stretched tight. Very tight! Once a loose carpet begins to form a ripple it needs a carpet stretching. As you walk on a carpet ripple it moves up and down far more than it should. As the loose carpet moves up and down it loosens up even more.  Soon the waves and ripples are so big, you need to get your surf board out just to cross the room.

So how can you prevent carpet stretching and when should you get a carpet fitter in to stretch your carpet.  What you need to know is why carpets stretch and what if anything you can do to prevent this.

There are 5 reasons why carpets stretch of which 3 are completely preventable and one which neither you or your fitter can do anything about.

The two reasons where you can do nothing to prevent your carpet stretching are:

• Carpet construction – some products due to their construction will stretch after they are installed, typically these are the better quality woven products like Aximinsters and Wiltons.   All you need to do, is the minute you notice any minor ripples or wrinkles is to call the person who sold you your carpet and get them to come and stretch it.   All reputable companies will come and do this for no charge.  Typcially this stretching will happen in the first few months after the carpet is installed.
• Carpet Cleaning – some carpets stretch (or even worse shrink) after carpet cleaning.  The products I notice stretching the most after cleaning are typically Belgian Wiltons.  Use a reputable carpet cleaner and get him to advise on whether this is likely to happen before you decide to get it cleaned.

The three reasons that carpets stretch that are completely preventable are:

1. Bad carpet fitting – the reason the carpets in the flat I visited were so bad is that they were never stretched properly when they carpets were initially installed.  On the day your carpet is fitted, it should be tight, there should be no ripples, wrinkles or bagging.  If it is not then get your carpet fitters to stretch it again.  Do not let them kid you that the wrinkles or bagging will disappear after a few days.  The only way to get rid of a ripple in a carpet is stretching!
2. Dragging furniture across a carpet – if you drag a heavy piece of furniture across a room it will pull on the carpet and stretch it.  So if you need to move your furniture get someone to help so you can lift it.  Even the regular movement of fairly light weight furniture can cause these problems.  One of the common problems I see is in rooms with wheely office chairs.  These are not heavy pieces of furniture but the regular moving backwards and forwards will stretch and damage your flooring.  This problem can be avoided in rooms with office chairs or regular use by wheel chair users by installing the carpets on a double stick system which prevents all movement of the product.
3. Bottoms of doors dragging on the carpet – if your door does not clear the carpet it will cause constant dragging on the carpet.  When your carpet retailer comes to quote for new flooring, make sure you ask him if he will ease the doors if the new carpet is thicker than your current flooring.  We do trim most types of doors for our customers for a small charge.  There are a few doors that you will need to get a specialist carpenter to trim.  Whatever you do, do not put a door back on until it does clear the carpet as this is a very quick way to ruin your lovely new flooring.   The worst case I saw was a company that took the front door off to fit the new hallway carpet, once they had finished, put the door back on and shut it with brute force.  When the customer came back they couldn’t get the front door open because of the new flooring.  They kept trying to get in and eventually the carpet rucked up and they just couldn’t get the door open.  They rang the company and they said that door trimming was not in the price.  They had to get a carpenter to take the door off from the outside and fold the carpet back until the door could be trimmed.

So my advice is if you see any slight wrinkles or creases in your carpets, get a local carpet fitter to come and stretch your carpets before it becomes a permanent problem.   If it is a relatively new carpet (less than 6 months) then get the company who sold you the carpet to come and do this.