"Tricks of the Carpet Trade," in the Floorcovering Installation & Maintenance Tips forum, begins: "Thanks for the compliments. In reading past posts one caught my eye-stretching in around a toilet. What I do. I ..."
Thanks for the compliments. In reading past posts one caught my eye-stretching in around a toilet. What I do. I use spray glue and glue pad to floor and carpet to pad. Never bubbles and it is totally flat.
Also wrking this past week with a friend I did something that caught their eye. We were taking up some attched cushin that wasn't stuck all that well but to expedite matters and make it easier We pulled back about 2ftx6t wide for a starter,cut 2 slits slip in a stretcher tube and now you have more leverage.
Location: I live in a nondescript hamlet in Canada.
Posts: 82
Re: tricks of the trade
When doing installation seminars I've been asked how I keep patch to a minimum at elevator walk-offs, you know, where quarry tile, marble, ceramic tile are met by carpet. The following diagram should expain how an installer can reduce from the tile to the concrete in a smooth transition without using more than 1/8th of an inch of patch.
Location: I live in a nondescript hamlet in Canada.
Posts: 82
Re: tricks of the trade
Here is another trick for insuring your flooring is flush and neetly fitted to floor fixtures.
Most installers have a broad knife they can afford to cut a 1/8 corner out of. Too, as a trowel becomes worn, one can cut a small corner out of it to achieve the same thing they did the with the putty knife.
In the second image is an innovation used to adjust to various thicknesses of material and floor fixtures. I made a working prototype many years back. The blue material is the flooring, the black thing on the innovation is simply a thumbscrew. The trowel does exactly what the putty knife does except it has the ability to be adjusted to many different thicknesses.
Simply butt the trowel to the material you wish to fit, slide clip down to material and tighten. If the trowel were to be used in diagram #1 it could result in speeding up the patching process.
Has anyone else tried using a hot air gun instead of a heatbond iron to do joins??
I find it works really well for those small patches or hard to get at joins and the leister welding gun is even better because it has a long narrow spout which gives you accurate delivery of heat.
Did a job recently that had dark cherry baseboard. Consumer was very concerned about scuffing from the secondary backing. I learned this trick from another installer jus acouple of years ago. Spray a rag with WD-40 and wipe down the baseboard. No Scuffs. I have not yet tried it but silicone might also work and it is not oily like WD.
Replacing metal is sometimes a pain because it's difficult to unclamp the metal without damaging the carpet edge, especially with a low profile looped carpet. I did this one today.......... customer wanted new metal to match the new cabinet hardware..... out goes the gold, in comes the silver............... Don't ask me to esplain the wierd curve........ I just did what I was asked to do.
After 30 years, a light bulb came on.
Lay a screwdriver on the carpet and punch it slightly through the metal............ then lift....... carefully! If you don't go too far through the metal, it will not hit the vinyl, so be careful.
The finished photo look like the carpet is stretched unevenly.......... It's not.......... my camera sometimes does weird things to anything that has lines or rows....... especially carpet backings.
Jeez, lookit the knuckles on that guy. I usually use a standard pry bar and lift the edge all along the carpet and then pull the carpet out to remove the metal. If I have to pry up the metal from the vinyl side, I lay a broad knife down (or any flat solid object) and pry against that so as not to damage the vinyl.
Yeah. He got them gorilla knuckles like that Tony Lamar guy.
Once I get a small spot of the metal turned up, I open a pair of vicegrips slightly, and open the rest like a can opener.
Yeah. He got them gorilla knuckles like that Tony Lamar guy.
Once I get a small spot of the metal turned up, I open a pair of vicegrips slightly, and open the rest like a can opener.
I have done that before with well walked on , or el cheapo metal............... open up one end by wiggling the metal back and forthe, then snap on the vice grips and pull slow and hard............... peels the top face clean off...... sometimes.
Try it some time Jim........... this screwdriver thingy works real good with the right sized screw driver... smack and lift, smack and lift, smack and lift.............etc, etc.............. take a close look at the screwdriver I used, the longer the blade the better........ works real good.
i lift the lip of the metal up with a molding lifter , gently lift out the cpt , then remove the metal from the cpt side with the molding lifter ..
Ezzac'ly how I do it, I just call it a small pry bar insteada a molding lifter. Most of my screw drivers are those 6-in-1 screw drivers (or cordless) with the small tips. But after seeing the pictures I might just get me a long tipped flat screw driver and give it a try. So many times the metal cavity is filled with sand and dirt that it's really difficult to get the pry bar in there and bend the metal up with any kind of rhythm. Or maybe I should just grind down a ruined wood chisel that's about 4 or 5 times as wide as a screw driver tip.
Why am I thinking about work at almost 3 in the morning -- on a Saturday morning at that?
I usually use a standard pry bar and lift the edge all along the carpet and then pull the carpet out to remove the metal. If I have to pry up the metal from the vinyl side, I lay a broad knife down (or any flat solid object) and pry against that so as not to damage the vinyl.
