My uncle told me to never use a knee kicker on berber carpet and I thought he was nuts

He said it would pull loops and ruin the whole job, that I should only use a power stretcher. I argued with him for a solid hour, saying a knee kicker is faster for small rooms and I've done it before. Well, I took a job in a Denver condo last month, a tight bedroom with this dense loop berber. I used my kicker like usual. Halfway through, I saw it. A perfect line of pulled loops right along the seam, maybe 18 inches long. I had to cut out a whole section and start over, adding two hours to the job. The customer noticed and I had to knock $50 off the bill. He was right, and I was stubborn. Has anyone else found certain carpets just won't take a kicker at all?

3 comments

3 Comments

shane43427d ago

Man, that's a tough lesson to learn the hard way. Some carpets are just too fragile for a kicker, no matter how careful you are. Your uncle saved you a lot of future headaches.

blair_webb3027d ago

Totally agree with @shane434. Makes you wonder how many other "normal" things are secretly carpet killers, right?

jake_martin167d ago

Actually my uncle was the one who broke the carpet with his shoe, not me. He was trying to show me how to be careful and ended up putting his foot right through a weak spot near the door. It taught me that sometimes the person giving the advice is the one who makes the mistake. So now I'm extra careful even when someone says they know what they're doing.