Changed my mind about stretch-in versus glue-down after a disaster in Phoenix

My buddy Tony who's been installing carpet for 20 years told me to always use glue-down in Arizona summers because the heat makes stretch-in carpets buckle like crazy. I ignored him and did a stretch-in job in a Phoenix living room last July, and sure enough three weeks later the customer called me back with wrinkles everywhere. Any of you guys switch methods based on climate or am I the only one who had to learn the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan_thomas8420d ago

Tony's been doing this way longer than I have too and honestly I used to think old school guys just hated change. But after that last Phoenix job I did in July I saw my own stretch-in carpet bubble up like a swimming pool liner and I had to eat crow on this one. Now I'm with you, I'll switch to glue-down if the temp is gonna be over 100 for more than a few days because I'd rather spend extra on materials than redo the whole room.

betty_wells21d ago

Gotta push back a little here, I mean are we really blaming the whole climate for a bad install? I've done stretch-in carpets in Tucson for years and never had this problem with wrinkling unless the padding was cheap or I didn't stretch it tight enough in the first place. Sounds like maybe the carpet wasn't power-stretched right, or maybe the humidity was just wild that week. I just don't buy that glue-down is automatically better just because it's hot out, you know?

diana51220d ago

Humidity was just wild that week" - yeah that made me rethink things honestly. I used to be in the "blame the installer" camp too but after seeing how different materials act down here I'm not so sure anymore. You got me reconsidering my whole take on this