Maybe I'm crazy

[highup]

I'm going to attempt a seam repair tomorrow. It's a glued down short, tight loop commercial material. ...unitary backed and it was installed over some old worn plywood that was skim coated.
It's a real hard one to row cut.
I pre cut pieces one row wide and sealed the edges with contact cement. Took a few hours to do that and I only made up 6 feet of it.... I need 3 1/2 to 4 feet. It's like doing surgery. I cut the strips, then narrowed the backing up as much as possible with my napping sissors. Then carefully sealed the edges. I had to tack the pieces so they wouldn't move about while I very carefully sealed the edges.
The installer row cut at least one side of the 25 foot seam. Just 3 or 4 feet need addressing. I'm hoping to trim out one row or whatever it takes to make a 1/8" or so gap. That's just enough room for a seam sealer bottle tip to fit into.
The seam has a 1/16" gap in the 'bad' area and I noticed half a row cut in at least part of it, so that's why I know it was cut from the top. I'm gonna cut material out on that side I think, and only cut out to the next full row.
Here's my seam sealing jig.

 

[Floorist]

I hope it pays real well.

 

[DarisMulkin]

To make the tip of your sealer bottle smaller get a metal basketball needle break the tip of and screw onto the tip of sealer bottle. I used that trick many times doing glue dow seam repairs.

 

[highup]

Good idea. I wouldn't think sealer would flow through something that small.

 

[DarisMulkin]

I never had a problem and the reason for the metal needle is it has threads on the inside as well as the out. If in doubt on the sealer thin it a little with solvent. But keep an eye on the needle so you don't blow it off the tip. If I went on a loop pull then I would lay a small bead of sealer on top thhe backing the full length of the seam. A couple years ago I did that at the local Flint airport where the guy didn't seal any of the seams and it was a Brussels wilton. Little white warp cords coming up all over the place.

 

[Floorist]

A couple years ago to Daris is 1948.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Couple is more than one, that fits but you missed it by 4.

 

[highup]

Needles came in a 10 pack. Didn't use em. I used a 6" spreader to part one row, and while it was in the row, I used it as a guide to trim off what I needed trimmed off.
I used a small mechanics scribe to dig out the schrapnel from my cuttings and huffed and puffed and blew the gap clean. I put a layer of blue tape on one side before gluing. The tape is more slippery than carpet pile, so that helped slide the tiny row down into the adhesive. Once the narrow strip of carpet was 1/2 way down into the gap, I pulled off the tape and finished manuvering the row flush.
Instead of making one longer and continuous repair, I did 4 separate repairs because there were good spots in between the bad ones. 6 to 10 inch repairs are easier to make because in each section you can choose the good site you want to keep.
So no needles, I just flattened the sealer bottles tip into an oval shape and inserted it all the way down into the groove and put in a nice bead.
The repair was like doing surgery. Turned out really nice.
Before and afters are below. In the repairs the seam is 1 1/2" beyond the tape.
At least I know it's possible now. Never done one quite like this one. Takes a lot of time sealing the edges of the fill strips. Sealing them in advance made them easier to handle. Without sealing them, they were a bid fragile and also, I didn't want the bead of sealer in my seam to seal the fill piece at the same timeas the seam edges..... that would be 4 edges to squish sealer onto and I didn't want any coming to the surface. Playing it safe takes a lot more time. I got 5+ hours into this tiny repair and an hours drive time to and fro.
Customer is happy, so if she hadn't finished paying for the job, she will now. All is good.

 

[Floorist]

Looks good.

 

[highup]

Scary doing stuff like this because it has to look better not like a repair. Thanks, I'm a happy camper.

 

[DarisMulkin]

What kind of needles did you look at? The most I ever saw was a 2 pack and a 1 pack. I used a bunch of them because I never cleaned then until I found out a paper clip slid right up inside them.

 

[highup]

I only stopped at one store and that's what they had. I think they were Spaulding.
I guess people must lose a lot of them?
I can certainly see the danger in them popping out. I used poster board to protect the surrounding area and keep the glue and used paper towels on.

 

[DarisMulkin]

I have used the plastic needles as well. The thing there is I forced the down into the nozzel from the inside. No worry of it coming off then.

 

[highup]

I haven't thought of that Daris.
I'm thinking the tip from a syringe wood work that way. Neat suggestion.