Wool carpet shrinkage - Help

[Walt]

Glad this isn't me. But my friend is working in the some (not occupied) private homes connected to a very high end resort in California. He's done several of them - wall to wall wool carpet - so far no problems. Except In one of the small rooms this happened - it's about 5 feet long.

He's cleaning with a cimex and re-leasit (I know, I know). According to him he didn't over wet it. Honestly, he's new to carpet cleaning so I don't know how reliable the info is.

So,

1. What happened?

2. How does he fix this before the house manager sees it? Can you stretch this? The room is a 10x10?

 

[Bob Foster]

n]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cUNNKzj_Ncn]

 

[sweendogg]

Negative on the Axeminster Hoodi, The border is cut pile which may be an axeminster while the main field is a patterned level loop. Axeminster by its very construction is always a cut pile. With the quality of picture, its hard to distinquish exactly what type of carpet it is. Especialy with no picture of the backing. A woven carpet is best identified from the back of the carpet. You may have a chance of restretching it, but this is not a job you should attempt unless you have alot of experience working with woven material. My fear here would be the seamed on border. That is the wink link here, you may be able to physically stretch it, but any weakness in the seam will show, I would consult with a local installer who works with woven materials. If you don't know any, find a local Karastan dealer. They should have a few very good installers who work with this material daily. You also need to find out if you are working with the lenghth of the material or the width. Some wovens will only stretch in the length and can only be snug in the width. While other wovens can be stretched in the length and the width. I wouldn't be surprised if this a tufted wool border on the outside with a woven field.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

This is a good lesson for us all.

You can reclean it, stretch it before it dries and then use turbo dryers to dry it quick after its installed. Check the tackless strip for damage and may want to double up too. Seams may be an issue too. Axminster carpet can only be restretched in its length, in many cases the carpet is ruined.

If that doesnt work have a installer use a new border all the way around the room.

 

[Willy P]

What type of backing? I might try laying down a double row of tack strip and VERY CAREFULLY try power stretching it in. Small bites first and rework it again. I'd also unhook two walls, the short one and the one closest to the short spot. It might be an idea to stay tack the opposite side of the stretch so you don't pull it away - is it on a slab or wood? Sorta looks like wood by the nail head size on the strip. With a lot of care and a little lick, it might be salvagable. Otherwise, break out the checkbook.

 

[hogjowl]

Never underestimate the entertainment value of a Google Search guru.

 

[Willy P]

Never underestimate the entertainment value of a Google Search guru.

HEY! I got the carved up knees to know what I'm talkin' about! So do you if I remember correctly....

WWMD?

 

[Walt]

This is a good lesson for us all.

You can reclean it, stretch it before it dries and then use turbo dryers to dry it quick after its installed. Check the tackless strip for damage and may want to double up too. Seams may be an issue too. Axminster carpet can only be restretched in its length, in many cases the carpet is ruined.

If that doesnt work have a installer use a new border all the way around the room.

This was how he handled it. Carpet was still damp from cleaning. Called installer. Added extra tackless strip and stretched into place. Installer verified that the initial install was incorrect with only one layer of tackless. Apparently looks good.

All this happened in a period of about 5 hours. Head of housekeeping never suspected any problems. My buddy is much relieved. He is new on an account most of us would drool over.


Thanks for the advice. It saved his butt.

 

[Willy P]

I wasted ALL my good advice?

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Never underestimate the entertainment value of a Google Search guru.

Says the one who based his entire business from the ICS bulletin board. :roll:

And it was Section 6 of Barry Costa's WRT workbook that I had to cross reference the spelling of Axminster.

i like that term Google Search Guru...

 

[Harry Myers]

Looks likes a Wilton (Woven) field to me . I would double strip it. Than release 1/2 of the room . This will let you achieve more of a stetch, Power stretch the short wall. Than attatch 1 wall with a knee kicker. Than power stretch your last wall. Do no attempt to wet it to stretch it up. I will shrink more. Well If I would have read further I wouldn' t be feeling like Willy right now well we tried. Glad it ws able to be fixed that material stretches good both ways.

 

[sweendogg]

Good to hear it all went well. Yeah that tackstip was done for.. Either double strip on a good wilton or axeminster or architechual strip. Hoodie, you looked up in a WRT manual!? If you haven't, consider taking the RRT with Barry, then porky can insult your inexperience that much less. it was carpet like this that I cut my teeth on as a youngster of 5 or 6, helping out my dad or other woven mechanics in our business buy running them tools or tucking the carpet. We've repaired alot of wool cleaning related issues because of ignorant techs from high volume low quality franchise and heard plent of stories too boot. A country club had a 4 foot custom axeminster with sewn seams that one of our mechanics had installed. Their was 15 seams across this country club back in the late 60's when he installed it. Glue down carpet did not exist back then. And everything was power stretched in over pad. They were on a montly cleaning schedule with the old carpet and didn't tell the cleaners not to come that month to shampoo. They were their the day after. The story goes that they were halfway through the big room and they started hearing loud popping sounds. Not only did it pull all the tackstrip out of the floors, but it was breaking everyother seam. They had foot and half of shrinkage over the 60 foot width. Needless the say, the cleaner went out of business after this job.

 

[Willy P]

Looks likes a Wilton (Woven) field to me . I would double strip it. Than release 1/2 of the room . This will let you achieve more of a stetch, Power stretch the short wall. Than attatch 1 wall with a knee kicker. Than power stretch your last wall. Do no attempt to wet it to stretch it up. I will shrink more. Well If I would have read further I wouldn' t be feeling like Willy right now well we tried. Glad it ws able to be fixed that material stretches good both ways.

LOL Harry - Beat knees too huh?

 

[TimP]

Must of been one crappy installation. In the picture the strip is backwards. Wasn't his fault at all for sure. It probably wasn't streched in the first place.

 

[Harry Myers]

Yes it is backwards.

 

[Walt]

Must of been one crappy installation. In the picture the strip is backwards. Wasn't his fault at all for sure. It probably wasn't streched in the first place.

The funny thing about that - it's in the most expensive hotel in California.

 

[sweendogg]

If the money isn't going towards quality work.. makes you wonder where its going too?

 

[TimP]

All contractors bid things off. We've done a lot of work on the coast here. And if you saw these places being built you wouldn't want nothing to do with them as far as ownership. They are all slaped together. We've had to have bathrooms rebuilt because you couldn't build a shower or tub surround in them. Now if you think about carpet installers, most do crap for work cause they don't get paid. Doesn't matter how nice the place is. It's easy to fool people who don't know nothing about carpet installation, get your check and RUN.

 

[sweendogg]

That is the same story across the country. Lots of slap and run installers in our kneck of the woods. Its been very difficult to find decent mechanics in our area, that is part of the reason we have not grown our retail side nearly as much as we could have. You need to have the quality people to support the products being sold.

 

[B&BGaryC]

w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cUNNKzj_Ncw]

Perfect response.

 

[Harry Myers]

Most installers do not know or properly able to install wool tufted or woven. This is somewhat the case of a carpet cleaner that mostly cleans olefin and nylon . It is really no different.

 

[lancehollister]

Over wetting and poor installation would seem to be the culpret. Recleaning and restretching souinds like the only option just be carfull not to tear the carpet and rappidly dry it.

 

[sweendogg]

It has already been solved.. no need to re clean it, it restretched just fine as it was a wilton.. the culprit here was purely installation error. The tackstrip was installed backwards, The tackstrip was three row tackstrip and should have easily held the woven goods, but turn it around and it was just waiting for someone to look at it wrong.