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c/carpet-installersspencer_woodspencer_wood26d agoTop Commenter

Knee kicker vs power stretcher on a tight hallway, I learned the hard way

Last Tuesday I was doing a 12 foot hallway in a condo near Ann Arbor and tried to save time with just a knee kicker. The carpet rippled bad enough that the homeowner noticed before I even finished, so I had to pull it all back up and redo it with the power stretcher. Has anyone else wasted a morning convincing themselves the smaller tool would work, or am I the only one who does this every few months?
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2 Comments
keith_singh
Ripples in a 12-foot hall seem like a pretty big deal, no?
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eric_johnson
Man I felt this one in my bones. I did the exact same thing last month on a bedroom that was maybe 10 feet wide and I told myself the kicker would be fine because it's a small room. Yeah right. I got it looking okay from the door but the second I walked across it there was a wave right in the middle that you could see from across the street. Had to pull the whole thing up and reset it while my helper just stood there shaking his head. The kicker only works if you're doing like a closet or a tiny landing and even then I'm getting suspicious. Now I just haul the power stretcher everywhere even if it means wrestling it through doorways because doing it once is way faster than doing it twice. Every few months I convince myself I'm smarter than my own tools and every few months I pay for it.
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