Carpet tube cutting

[highup]

Oh my God does that mean I'm green

 

[Floorist]

At one time in KC, I could sell all good used carpet to a store. All good used pad to the recycler. And the carpet tubes. Nothing went to waste.

 

[JPfloor]

If you have a carpet truck full of carpet and have 10 locations or 15 to deliver to you probably not going to want to pick up any tubes until you get to the last one or two. All the places that sell carpet would need to dedicate space to store this tubes which would need to be indoors. Making any money otherwise you'd have to have a truck totally dedicated to carpet tubes and be able to fill the entire truck with them. If there's a profit in it I'm sure that somebody would be doing it but it sure is a shame to be watching the tubes go straight into the dumpster. The local Carpet One Warehouse has a dumpster dedicated to cardboard so I'll cut them in half and drop them in there instead of the big carpet dumpster.

It worked pretty well at the time. Drop off a few, pick up a few…The drivers seemed to be happy about the few extra dollars each trip. If we had a lot of poles they’d swing back around at the end of their day. As I recall the mills stopped offering money to the drivers for the used poles… Just too much trouble I guess, easier to buy new and pass on the cost.… The mindset of many large corporations.

 

[JPfloor]

At one time in KC, I could sell all good used carpet to a store. All good used pad to the recycler. And the carpet tubes. Nothing went to waste.

Sure! A lot of used carpet used to get shipped to Mexico, or so I was told. I remember alway finding bits and pieces of carpet in the old hair and jute padding and also in some of the newer synthetic. Don’t know if it was new scraps or old carpet but it was in there…

 

[Floorist]

Sure! A lot of used carpet used to get shipped to Mexico, or so I was told. I remember alway finding bits and pieces of carpet in the old hair and jute padding and also in some of the newer synthetic. Don’t know if it was new scraps or old carpet but it was in there…

Big Bob's in KC would buy all good used carpet except green and gold. They would clean it and resell it. They had some winos install it. When they would sell new stuff, especially woven, they would have me install it.

 

[DarisMulkin]

We had a Shaw driver that was getting.75 per tube so I don't know why they quit. There was a rack in the store that would hold over a hundred tubes so when we were last stop he was elated.

 

[highup]

Sure! A lot of used carpet used to get shipped to Mexico, or so I was told. I remember alway finding bits and pieces of carpet in the old hair and jute padding and also in some of the newer synthetic. Don’t know if it was new scraps or old carpet but it was in there…

It's been many years but I've seen pad with an occasional staple in it.

 

[highup]

It worked pretty well at the time. Drop off a few, pick up a few…The drivers seemed to be happy about the few extra dollars each trip. If we had a lot of poles they’d swing back around at the end of their day. As I recall the mills stopped offering money to the drivers for the used poles… Just too much trouble I guess, easier to buy new and pass on the cost.… The mindset of many large corporations.

I'm thinking if a driver had to return to a store you'd have to figure the time it took to return to the store plus to back up to the loading dock, then the time it took to put the tubes in the truck, then the time to get back to where he was in the first place. I'm sure if it took 10 minutes to back his truck up quickly load the tubes and get moving one would have to start calculating the cost. What is the hourly cost to operate a truck and pay a driver for let's say 15 minutes. I'm thinking if the truck driver could make one stop and totally fill his trailer with tubes then they would definitely be a profit to be made. Money is definitely involved. There's no money in being 'green' if you're only doing it to feel good. I don't disagree that it's a wasteful policy but carpet companies and truck drivers are in this to make money.

 

[DarisMulkin]

It's been many years but I've seen pad with an occasional staple in it.

I've even found pieces of tackless in it.

 

[Floorist]

I've even found pieces of tackless in it.

Rebond always had some pieces of hard plastic in it.

 

[JPfloor]

What is the hourly cost to operate a truck and pay a driver for let's say 15 minutes.

What is the cost of 25 or 30 or more new tubes?

I don’t think the driver’s time was the issue. I’m guessing the issue was cleaning up the old tubes, staples and such.

 

[highup]

Like I said there's no money in it or they'd be doing it. If the trucks come from Georgia out to the West Coast, do the trucks go back empty or do they try and pick up something that makes a profit on the return trip?
It's kind of like that old story about Bill Gates walking down the street and seeing a dollar bill on the ground. It cost him more money to stop and pick it up than to just keep walking. I think it's that sort of thing. No drivers going to have a half a dozen tubes laying in his truck while he's still delivering stuff so he's going to end up going back to the stores on the way back out of town to pick up tubes. Can you imagine having a truck, still a third full of carpet and pallets of tile to deliver and somebody wants to give you 50 carpet tubes? Where you going to put them where their not in your way. Maybe if all the carpet companies in a town rented a warehouse to put all their carpet tubes in, then the truck driver could just stop there when he's done unloading goods and the carpet tube warehouse guy could load all those tubes in his truck and tie them down. So now what's it cost to rent the warehouse to store the carpet tubes in and have somebody load the tubes for the driver. There's no money in carpet tubes.

 

[C.J.]

I’ve got a Kreg jig for pocket holes. You used to be able to send your drill bits back to Kreg to be sharpened for a few bucks. Not anymore. Now you just have to buy a new one. Carpet tubes are the same way. Why spend money on labor to mess with old tubes when you can just buy new ones and pass the cost along.

 

[highup]

Besides the new ones are nice and round and don't have those chunks of plastic and the cardboard plugs to screw with. The new ones are all nice and round and the same size. Reusing the old ones would be like having a bucket of old miscellaneous rusty nuts bolts and screws from things you disassembled over the years. Every time you need six machine screws you only have of 4 of them, and one is Philip's and the other three are straight slot. You only have one washer and four nuts to go with them...... And one of the screws is bent a little bit.
I used to have a gallon size coffee can half full of all kinds of nuts and bolts and weird stuff. It was at my carport and got some water dripping in there for a while.
Don't have that anymore right by new stuff when I need it. If I'm in a creative mood and I'm building something it's all going to have new shiny nuts and bolts and screws. No big pile of old nuts and bolts for me.

 

[JPfloor]

Yes I get it.… Milk man used to come to my house, deliver milk and pick up the old bottles to be washed and reused…. Soda companies used to reuse bottles… People used to wash cloth diapers (ewwww)…. Just doesn’t work anymore…. Maybe electric cars will save us from ourselves? lol

 

[highup]

I have an idea. Technology is probably way behind but how about virtual carpet tubes.... eh? ....ehh?
Think of the savings.

 

[Floorist]

I have an idea. Technology is probably way behind but how about virtual carpet tubes.... eh? ....ehh?
Think of the savings.

How about telescoping?

 

[highup]

How about carbon fiber?
.....make em worth picking up.

 

[highup]

How about making carpet stiffer?

 

[rugaddict]

I just use a hand saw—- around here I know a guy who cuts the tubes to 18” stuffs them with newspapers and uses them in his woodstove