Carpet Stretching

All of us have carpets at home that we absolutely treasure. Some of us have even spent more than what is necessary to buy one. For those who these carpets, sooner or later you will want to know how you can stretch them. Even more so if you have kids at home. Too much of pressure on the carpet, poor installation, water damage and poor quality of the carpet are few things that lead to wrinkles in carpet. The moment you see these wrinkles, you should consider stretching as an immediate job. If you have started noticing wrinkles on yours, and are wondering how you can stretch it, read this article and know.

How to Stretch Carpet With a Carpet Stretcher

Carpet Stretching Tools
Here are a few basic tools that you will need, which are necessary to get the job done

• Knee stretcher
• Hammer
• Power carpet stretcher
• Industrial carpet staple gun
• Carpet or slotted blade knife
• Awl

Procedure
Remove all the furniture and metal strips from your carpet, specially if you are stretching the carpet for the first time. You might even consider cleaning your carpet before stretching it. Now, fix the carpet at 6" from the wall with a Awl or with the help of Pliers. Once that is done, decide the direction you need to stretch your carpet in. Start using the carpet stretcher in that direction. Don't apply more pressure than necessary as this can tear your carpet. The areas you can't reach with the carpet stretcher, can be accessed using the knee kicker. Do not use the knee on the knee kicker but use your quadriceps. Cut the extra threads with the knife and if you need to use a stapler, use it with care. The tools that I have mentioned in the beginning of this article can be found on rent in any hardware store. The cost of these tools will be somewhere around $60.

How to Stretch Carpet Without a Carpet Stretcher

Now, if you don't want to take all those efforts and want to stretch the carpet without the carpet stretcher, you can use only the knee kicker wherever you find it necessary. If the wrinkles aren't a lot, you can do the stretching with your hands. Kneel down and start pushing the carpet from the center. Apply pressure and start stretching the carpet towards the outer sides. Remember, that some type of carpets stretch only in one direction, so make sure you know the type of carpet you are dealing with. Once, you are done with the complete area of the carpet, cut the extra ends. The cost to stretch a carpet isn't a lot so I would personally advise stretching a carpet with the help of a carpet stretcher. The general cost to stretch a carpet is somewhere around 0.40 cents per foot and the maximum total cost won't usually exceed $140.

Now the big question here is, are wrinkles the only signs of need for restretching? Well, not really. What you can do is, hold the carpet from its center and lift it till your knee height. Once there, just let it fall. If it falls back in place, there is no need to restretch a carpet in this case. If it does not, you have the two options we discussed above. So now you know everything about carpet stretching and I must say it isn't really as difficult as it may sound. Both the carpet stretcher and the knee kicker come with separate Do-To instructions so you know how to exactly use them. Last but not the least, do not delay stretching your carpet as this might lead to permanent damage, which it mostly always does. The cost of buying a new carpet is much more than stretching it or even restretching it. Even the carpet stretching service from professionals will be more cost-effective.