Watched a guy stretch a Berber in a Tucson garage at 108 degrees and it made me rethink my whole tackless setup
Stopped by a buddy's job on Speedway last Tuesday, mostly to drop off a knee kicker he loaned me back in March. He was laying a tight Berber in a garage that had to be 108 inside, no AC, just a box fan pointed at the door. I always power stretch room to room and figure the heat is my friend. He did the opposite. He let the carpet sit in the sun on the driveway for 40 minutes first, then stretched it while it was still warm and soft, and the thing laid down like butter with zero wrinkles on the second pass. I've been fighting a ripple in a polyester job in my own truck for a week, going back over it twice. So I tried his way on a small closet yesterday, warm it up, stretch once, done. No ripple. I've been doing it the hard way for 6 years because that's how the shop did it. Any of you work with the heat on purpose like that, or am I just late to this?
That "let it sit in the sun on the driveway" part is the whole trick and I never thought about it that way. I read a thing on a flooring forum a while back where a guy in Phoenix said he lets carpet bake out back before it ever goes in the door, and I kind of brushed it off as one of those old timer tall tales. But it makes sense, warm backing bends instead of fighting you. I've always just cranked the stretcher and cussed at ripples in the cool months. Gonna try warming the roll first on my next job and see if the second pass goes smoother.