HACK repair

Jack May

That Kiwi
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,423
Location
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Name
John
What NOT to do when you're doing repairs :shock:

I was called by this client to clean her lounge room 'while it's empty'.

I get there this morning. The whole lounge room is totally bare. She had booked a repair for an iron mark with a carpet retailer that doesn't send me any work.

They told her that she would have to have the room clear of any furniture. She spent an entire day shifting the stuff. She is late fifties and lives alone and no family in the same town.

They came in yesterday, spent two hours and charged her 177.75 (that's $158 + tax) and left this mess :eek:

She only had the one mat, and they used the whole thing for 4 attempts before they got it to this stage and ran out of mat and decided this was as good as it ever was going to get.

I wasn't going to say anything but she caught me checking it out and asked my thoughts on it. I opened my big trap and said too much letting her know that I could have done it for 2/3 of that price, be in and out in 3/4 hour and she wouldn't have had to shift a single piece of furniture.

Guess who's on my list for some mailers 8) with some very good before and after photos :?:

In actually asked her if she had any over and I would have done a freebe for her but they left nothing. I still offered to try and clean it up a little for her but she said that she was disputing the invoice so didn't want another contractor touching it yet or at least until after the manager had seen his tech's handy work.

Makes you sick doesn't it?

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John

John
 

John Watson

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,885
We have a client, A doctors wife whom we clean stairs and traffic areas in her kids bedrooms only, 2-3 time a year. No, I cleaned the living room wall to wall once 10 years ago when her cat had diarrhea. Last time I cleaned (about a month ago) there was an iron imprint melted into her daughters tight level looped commercial style carpet. She inquired if I could repair? I said yes, It would be about $125 to move the burn into the closet. She said No thanks, I can buy a $5.00 throw rug for it.
 

Jack May

That Kiwi
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,423
Location
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Name
John
I've cooled down now a bit but that sort of crap gets me hot under the collar for giving our industry a bad name...

It's no wonder most baulk at the suggestion of a repair when they see those sort of results :cry:

John
 

Charlie Lyman

Supportive Member
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Oct 9, 2006
Messages
2,603
Location
Meridian, ID
Name
Charlie Lyman
if you would, could you explain all that is wrong so when I start to practice I can watch out for these things. I know it straight out looks horrible, but what did they do wrong to get it that way?
 

harryhides

Member
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Oct 7, 2006
Messages
4,429
Location
Canada
Name
Tony
Looks like they used a straight edge and cut past the mark on nearly every corner for starters.
 
M

Mark Imbesi

Guest
John,

Don't worry about repairs like that giving us a bad name. It makes it easier for us to shine above the rest. I have received a few referrals over the years from clients telling their friends..."You didn't get Marc to do that, did you?"....

...just relax and don't worry about the rest of the industry.
 

Jack May

That Kiwi
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,423
Location
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Name
John
Charles,

a few things. Like Tony said, he has over shot the corners on both sides on each of the four corners.

Now I'll often on smaller repairs run past the corner but it's only on the run and never across.

Secondly, he hasn't had any regard for the rows. That carpet could be cut BOTH directions without cutting any tufts.

It isn't square so he's gone across rows.

I suspect even the nap is the wrong direction meaning each carpet is manufactured in 1 direction. If you get a round pencil and paper. Place the pencil over the paper and roll your palm over the pencil with a bit of pressure back and forward and the paper will move one direction under your hand. You do this on both the install and the donor to find out which way to install.

There's not much that can be done regarding the use of near new donor into worn and faded carpet but that is out of his hands... yes, Tony and John have both told us about adding a bit of colour or stressing a donor first to help blend in better.

Others may have picked up other things, but they are what jumps out at me.

Charles, even by having access to this room and reading what and how things happen, I'd guess most here could put this layer to shame!!

Marc, I hear ya mate... I'm like that though and that's what drives me to perfect what I attempt to do. I feel the same way about guys that give carpet cleaners bad names by squirt and suck poor results using really high pH on wool carpets etc. I get that way when someone stuffs up a fire or flood restoration job and after a $2, 3, 5 or 10k bill, the insurer has to rip and replace whatever.

John
 

Jack May

That Kiwi
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,423
Location
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Name
John
Here's another HACK repair.

This is a $300/lineal Meter carpet. Replaced on insurance for water damage.

High end home, she drives a brand new BMW 5 series and he drives a two year old M5 car.

Anyway, they only have top value stuff in their home. The layer that installed this lot, didn't seam seal the joins. There happens to be a join in the dining room where the chair legs move across.

This is 3' outside the kitchen one direction and 4' from the main entrance foyer in another entrance.

12 months ago, they asked me to inspect and advise. I saw the problem with a row coming undone on the side or a seam so advised the layer return, take out 2 or 4 rows, seal, re join and then re stretch... all doable due to the size and shape of the room.

I got called back in, in January this year, as 'it's happened again'.

This is what I found.

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He decided to just cut out and slip a new piece in. Only problem is, he didn't use any tape, no KG, no hot melt glue, just squirted a bit of latex on the underlay/pad, slipped the section in and she'll be right mate!!!

It turns out, he was told he had to repair it in his own time as he had stuffed up on the original installation, so he took the easiest way out.

I re did the repiar correctly with the KG and hopefully the client never has a problem again.

John
 

safeclean

Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
159
Nice work John it amazes me this guy is an installer does it everyday and you make him look like a lately looks like we will be in business for a long time offering this service. I find when inserting rows that seam sealing is crucial what I have been trying lately is using KG tape than some hot glue than inserting row and hit it with the KG to get that extra bond as I found the ones tested with just the KG was hard/easy to pull out with my fingers with hot melt included no chance at all.

Craig
 

Jack May

That Kiwi
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,423
Location
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Name
John
I too have been trialling that since Steve mentioned it Craig.

I was finding that sometimes the corners were not stuck well enough with KG tape only. So either I had to wait for it to cool and then re zap it with the iron in a different place, or I started welding in the corners and cross joins with hot melt.

I just need to get a better glue gun. The one I have is ok, but only 30 watts and so is very slow to heat up.

I had it modified to take that special tip that Harry sent me over, and I LOVE that tip, but find it takes a good 5+ minutes to get hot enough for the first use.

John
 

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