Glad we don't have any fire ants here. Just the bitty sugar ants every 10 years and carpenter ants every 20, knock on what's left of wood.
What did you do today?
- Thread starter havasu
- Start date
Help Support Flooring Forum:
I began a carpet restoration today.
It was flawed from day one which was about 2 months ago. I get to be Mr fix It. I need to have a t-shirt made, "I can fix that"
....... I'm sure that one's trademarked already
Anyway, what do you do when a job is completed and the customer comes in two days later nearly crying and tells you how horrible the job looks?
She's told whatever is wrong will be fixed.
A couple weeks later she comes in with a baggie containing four razor blades and a bunch of pieces of padding with staples sticking out of them. The razor blades were found by the lady's grandson and were laying on the floor in a large closet.
The clumps of padding with staples embedded in them came from the gravel in the driveway.
This was an entire upstairs of the home and they didn't vacuum so there was carpet fuzzies in the air as they worked on all the way down the stairs which had not been done yet and all the way out to the driveway.
Anyway I've got a few days ahead of me we're doing the entire job with the same carpet. Not replacing the carpet just fixing the carpet issues.
Day one, this seam sucks.
.....well it sucked but it doesn't now.
Before I left this afternoon I also took apart the doorway seam from this area above the stairs leading into a master bedroom.
I'm thinking the same installer that did the carpet seem did the padding seam. Why is it such a big thing to put a saddle seam in doorways? Is it that much faster?
Do you really save that much padding?
Anyway it's the whole upstairs of a house and I got my feet wet today. I think I can polish this turd.
If you look at the image with the blue tape, then look at the image where I'd remove the tape, that's the same seam. That's actually how wide the gap was.
On the bright side, seemed disassembly is easy because he did use the cool glide and I was totally blown away.
The seams were also thermally sealed which also blew me away. No one in the universe seals seams..... OK, 10 people and I haven't met the rest yet
That said, he applied way too much Thermo seemed sealer which added to the problems.
Luckily, I was able to trim 1/8 of an inch off of each side of the seam with my scissors and put it back together.
I'd show you how well it turned out but then..... you know how the saying goes, then I'd have to kill you.
Anyway have been dreading this large upstairs repair which involves restretching and trimming every single wall including the five large closets.
But I saw today told me that this is possible so my worrying is all about nothing. From hear on out, it will be just going through the motions.
I used to have problems with the ends of my seams when I first started. They looked a lot like the ones in your pictures. Took me a bit to figure it out but one of the two things I did was switch from a star seam tractor to a Bigfoot seam tractor (ribbed flat roller). The spikes effed up the nap so you couldn’t really tell what the seam looked like as you were making it. Flat roller didn’t do that.
Second thing I did was to quit wiping off my iron. When you wipe it off then start a seam with a clean iron you’re taking adhesive away from the beginning of the seam because half of it is now on the iron. That led to the ends of my seam splitting when I stretched. Yeah my iron would smoke so I just unplugged it if I wasn’t going to be burning another seam anytime soon.
Just thought of number 3 which was switching to a better seam tape. Orcon XK 50 was the ticket for me.
As far as leaving blades on the job, WTF! Everybody knows they get left under the pad. Carpet layer’s trademark
Showed my wife those pictures. All she could say was OMG.I began a carpet restoration today.
It was flawed from day one which was about 2 months ago. I get to be Mr fix It. I need to have a t-shirt made, "I can fix that"
....... I'm sure that one's trademarked already
Anyway, what do you do when a job is completed and the customer comes in two days later nearly crying and tells you how horrible the job looks?
She's told whatever is wrong will be fixed.
A couple weeks later she comes in with a baggie containing four razor blades and a bunch of pieces of padding with staples sticking out of them. The razor blades were found by the lady's grandson and were laying on the floor in a large closet.
The clumps of padding with staples embedded in them came from the gravel in the driveway.
This was an entire upstairs of the home and they didn't vacuum so there was carpet fuzzies in the air as they worked on all the way down the stairs which had not been done yet and all the way out to the driveway.
Anyway I've got a few days ahead of me we're doing the entire job with the same carpet. Not replacing the carpet just fixing the carpet issues.
Day one, this seam sucks.
.....well it sucked but it doesn't now.
Before I left this afternoon I also took apart the doorway seam from this area above the stairs leading into a master bedroom.
I'm thinking the same installer that did the carpet seem did the padding seam. Why is it such a big thing to put a saddle seam in doorways? Is it that much faster?
Do you really save that much padding?
Anyway it's the whole upstairs of a house and I got my feet wet today. I think I can polish this turd.
If you look at the image with the blue tape, then look at the image where I'd remove the tape, that's the same seam. That's actually how wide the gap was.
On the bright side, seemed disassembly is easy because he did use the cool glide and I was totally blown away.
The seams were also thermally sealed which also blew me away. No one in the universe seals seams..... OK, 10 people and I haven't met the rest yet
That said, he applied way too much Thermo seemed sealer which added to the problems.
Luckily, I was able to trim 1/8 of an inch off of each side of the seam with my scissors and put it back together.
I'd show you how well it turned out but then..... you know how the saying goes, then I'd have to kill you.
Anyway have been dreading this large upstairs repair which involves restretching and trimming every single wall including the five large closets.
But I saw today told me that this is possible so my worrying is all about nothing. From hear on out, it will be just going through the motions.
The gap you see on the back side of the seam is actual width.
He used the Koolglide seamer, so taking everything apart went better than expected.
Personally, I love the Koolglide for loops and patterns, not much for ciit pile like this.
He used the Koolglide seamer, so taking everything apart went better than expected.
Personally, I love the Koolglide for loops and patterns, not much for ciit pile like this.
That's the same thing the blind guy said......... Not the vertical blind guy, the guy with the candy striped cane.
I woulda been mad. Something about fixing other installers **** that just really gets to me in a personal kinda way that is hard for me to overlook.
When you're 65 it's easier than heavy lifting.
.....almost 65.
...I'm still eating chocolate fudge cake doncha know.
I like restretches and smaller stuff these days. It's just disappointing to see a customer this unhappy.
This is decent material, not rental stuff. The customer had tons of stuff to move before this installation.... and being upstairs, very few places to move it to, so the job was not primed for efficiency.
That said, with a slow pace and me as the installer, I'd rather loose a few sheckles to keep the job flowing smoothly than piss off the customer by doing shoddy work.
There are once in a while, jobs that suck. My experience has been those PITA jobs gain you good customers based on your dedication to making everything top notch.
This job is going to be expensive...... for his reputation.
This is decent material, not rental stuff. The customer had tons of stuff to move before this installation.... and being upstairs, very few places to move it to, so the job was not primed for efficiency.
That said, with a slow pace and me as the installer, I'd rather loose a few sheckles to keep the job flowing smoothly than piss off the customer by doing shoddy work.
There are once in a while, jobs that suck. My experience has been those PITA jobs gain you good customers based on your dedication to making everything top notch.
This job is going to be expensive...... for his reputation.
I worked for one store for three months fixing their previous installers mistakes. Paid very well and for short hours.
Look what I found on ebay, think it will work?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3542385117...AyYDvuHkhgbkFiD+XY9aVKAe0=|tkp:Bk9SR8zxpqrZYA
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3542385117...AyYDvuHkhgbkFiD+XY9aVKAe0=|tkp:Bk9SR8zxpqrZYA
No
Money makes all the difference in the world.
There was a time when I had repairs thrown on me and I wasn’t makin decent money for doing them. That really burned a negative image in my head about fixing other peoples ****. Now I just won’t do it because I know it will mess with my head and I’d rather take a day off than get pissed off even if it is my own issue. I’m sure there IS a price that would change my perception but I haven’t seen it yet.
Can't imagine the use for oscillating? Cutting with the hook blade like that is just a straight pull. I'm going to say the majority of the guys I've been working with are using hook blades to cut carpet tile. I rarely did but it works pretty good. You know, it's more what you train yourself for rather than one is certainly better. Then even with that you need to switch up with all the different backings.
I'd imagine there's some utility to that tool, just not carpet. Maybe if it took some of the strain off when you're just whacking in carpet tile that gets cove base so you don't get tendonitis. If I were still working I'd try it. I'm a junkie.
The guy that did this job or should I say, his installers finish the job up and left a few razor blades in one of the large closets. Her grandson found them there. I think he's around 9 years old maybe 10 so not as big a deal as if toddler or rugrat found them. She was not amused.
Yesterday I finished up the big hallway area above the stairs and as I was cleaning things up I remembered seeing some carpet fuzz down inside the heat vent, so as I was vacuuming I decided to vacuum down in that vent. It's one of those insulated, flexible vent tubes.
The vent tube goes straight down and starts to curl at about 18 or 20 inches. As I peered down I saw my bloody Mary knife. It must have tumbled down there when I folded the carpet back to take the seam apart. There was also a colored pencil. I laid down on the floor and reached into the vent to grab my knife and felt the end of my finger get cut. I pulled it out and blood was dripping so I quickly cut my hands and moved to the bathroom so I wouldn't get blood on the carpet. While rinsing my finger I pull off a bunch of toilet paper to wrap around my hand so I could continue vacuuming.
I grabbed my carpet knife by the handle....... so my own stupidity is not what cut me.
I retrieved the pencil, then using the back side of my hand I reached down inside the vent where it curved tapping my fingers lightly on the plastic vent material. I discovered that there was a carpet blade laying in there. It obviously fell down when the last guys were there installing. When I go back today I'm going to tape one of my super magnets onto a pencil and see if there's any more carpet blades laying down in there.
I'm sure as hell glad it was me that got cut and not one of the grandkids or her seeing that pencil and reaching for it.
No I didn't tell the homeowner about it, no reason to upset her even more.
And now Highup is lodown
Be careful when reaching for the fuzz, because you may get
bloody 
. Nice repair job and integrity high !
Never understod leaving a blade under the carpet or pad.
And now Highup is lodown
Be careful when reaching for the fuzz, because you may get
Nice repair job and integrity high !
Looks good, Highup. Sorry to hear you cut your finger. Very irresponsible for the blades to be left there. Glad you found your knife at least. It was nice of you to get the stuff out so the customer's grandkid won't get hurt. The old medicine cabinet in our house had a slot where people could drop old razorblades down. When we took the wall panel off we found a ton of old razorblades in the wall.
I got up and had to get a new bag of cat food opened & set in the storage bin (got one of those feed bins for cats/dogs in the pantry), swept up the hallway (cats had left a dead mouse and other dirt there), took out the trash, put a new trash bag in (I mention it bc the rare times when my brother takes the trash out, he usually doesn't bother to put a bag back in-- and trash is the one chore he's supposed to do). Went outside and picked some stuff up off the lawn & put it on the porch so it wouldn't get ruined, went and got the stepladder and dragged it back to the porch (its bulky & I'm a wuss so it was harder than it sounds-- kept tangling on weeds). Did some light cleaning in the kitchen. Made myself some pork chops for lunch and am about to nap. I just had to go back out to the truck to find something I forgot in there the other day. Mom had grabbed some muffins and I totally forgot about them. I had a banana nut muffin & she had a blueberry muffin.
I need to put some gloves on and get some clorox wipes out and start cleaning up stuff that keeps falling on the floor and put it away in plastic bins. I got another bin to put stuff in because the cardboard box ripped and stuff keeps falling out.
I got up and had to get a new bag of cat food opened & set in the storage bin (got one of those feed bins for cats/dogs in the pantry), swept up the hallway (cats had left a dead mouse and other dirt there), took out the trash, put a new trash bag in (I mention it bc the rare times when my brother takes the trash out, he usually doesn't bother to put a bag back in-- and trash is the one chore he's supposed to do). Went outside and picked some stuff up off the lawn & put it on the porch so it wouldn't get ruined, went and got the stepladder and dragged it back to the porch (its bulky & I'm a wuss so it was harder than it sounds-- kept tangling on weeds). Did some light cleaning in the kitchen. Made myself some pork chops for lunch and am about to nap. I just had to go back out to the truck to find something I forgot in there the other day. Mom had grabbed some muffins and I totally forgot about them. I had a banana nut muffin & she had a blueberry muffin.
I need to put some gloves on and get some clorox wipes out and start cleaning up stuff that keeps falling on the floor and put it away in plastic bins. I got another bin to put stuff in because the cardboard box ripped and stuff keeps falling out.
Maybe for slicing up a glued down carpet for removal. Maybe with a push, not a pull… I dunno, maybe not…
