Loading…
0
Vent: I switched from a knee kicker to a power stretcher on a 900 sq ft job in Denver and I'm never going back
Did a 900 square foot berber install in Denver last month and my knees were shot by day one using the old kicker, so I finally broke out the power stretcher my uncle handed down. The difference was night and day. I got the same rooms done in about 6 hours instead of nearly two days, and the carpet sat way tighter against the tack strip with almost no ripple near the seams. My back thanked me too, since I wasn't hunched over slamming my knee into a pad all afternoon. The only catch is you need enough open floor to plant the tail, which gets tricky in a small hallway or a closet. Any of you still kicking by hand, and how do you handle tight rooms where the stretcher won't fit?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
amy_west1mo ago
You really think a power stretcher is always the answer? I've seen guys blow out seams and tear carpet at the tack strip because they cranked too hard on a stretcher, especially on berber that likes to zipper. In a hallway or closet that thing is useless anyway, so now you're hauling two tools around instead of one. A knee kicker in tight spots gets the job done fine once you learn to use your weight instead of just your knee. And your uncle's hand me down might be great, but not every stretcher head plays nice with every backing. Six hours sounds fast until you're back in that Denver place fixing a seam that split.
2