The Joy of Power Stretching?

[Stevea]

Thought this might be an example of what can happen when someone does not set the pins of a power stretcher far enough into the carpet. The consumer was baffled by this and could not figure out what was wrong with his brand new carpet, it was losing tufts when he rubbed his hands over it. Just sharing an interesting power stretching situation.

Notice the primary is split / cut and the secondary is still in place

Hope you enjoy

SA

 

[Mark Imbesi]

Please tell me this was replaced, Steve.

 

[Stevea]

Marc,

It will be. You had doubts?

I thought you would enjoy this one.

SA

 

[Shorty]

Steve, pardon my ignorance, but the slice in the last pic shows to be a very straight cut going across the carpet.

Least that is what it appears to be to me.

Could it be from a razor blade/stanley knife type of slicing action :?:

I would have thought that a power stretcher would tear the carpet with tearing going towards the wall and be jagged :?:

Cheers,

Shorty.

 

[Stevea]

Hi Shorty,

Nice to hear from you. I have enjoyed some of the emails you have sent, especially the one on the bar b q grill.

Good eye to catch the secondary backing and understand which way it shows, and yes it is across the carpet but that is just the way it was stretched 4 different ways and this was a stretch wall so he damaged it as well.

It could have been from a bent tooth in the power stretcher as well but when you see the bigger picture in the room it appears he just did a sloppy job and tore the face. Easy enough to do, that is why we are told to 'slam' the head into the carpet and penetrate the primary and secondary. This was not a knife cut but was trauma from force, the pattern points to the power stretcher.

Hope that helps explain some of it.

Steve

 

[Larry B]

Steve we see this alot in some of the rental properties we care for. The lady has a little over 100 units and just about every new carpet has damage like this. I have told her the carpet guys are doing it and they tell her its cheap made carpet. I have printed all this off to show her. Thanks for posting this.

 

[Stevea]

Larry,

Glad to help. Now here is another good reason for this board, helping us to gain useful knowledge that we can use in our real business.
Larry, thanks for saying something.

SA

 

[breezeman]

It looks more like knee kicker marks. I've seen some installers use the kicker on these base grade carpets. They call it the going home stretch.

 

[Stevea]

If you look closely at the second photo, you can see the outline of the power stretcher head. Knee kickers can certainly cause problems as well, have it happen somewhat regularly in classes by ones who take the challenge and think they can move a carpet with a knee kicker the same as one could with a power stretcher but a power stretcher can really make an interesting mark, just like the ones here.

It is obvious that a photo is not the same as being able to see it live so it is often easy to miss something.

SA

 

[D Rice]

Can you set your power stretcher too deep? How do you know how deep to set it? DO you just make sure the spikes go through the primary and secondary backings. Another question is when should I use the cotton type head as it seems it would damage the face yarns. I know that Craine sells an accessory head you can buy?
Doug

 

[sweendogg]

Yes you can go to deep with your teeth. Its important to be able to pentrate the primary and seconary backing but if you penetrate to far you can actually rip the pad which can cause a slurry of other problems to deal with. Teeth depth idealy should be set according to the carpet thickness. But the above damage can be prevented by simply taking the time to set the the head on each pull insuring a good bite on the carpet and gingerly working the stretch and not forcing the handle down for a quick pull. Also good preventative maintenance as was already mentioned is to check the teeth atleast every other job to catch any damaged teeth that may damage or pull a tuft or loop. A cotton head is traditionaly used with loop pile or low profile construction carpets such as wool sisals, wilton wovens, or velvet wovens.

 

[boazcan]

Someone gave me a junior stretcher with no adjustments on the teeth. Sounds like this might be a good paper weight or seam weight!!

 

[Jay D]

Set the pins? :roll: opps.... learn something new everyday. :shock: