The one thing I'm extremely sad about are the absolute cheap carpet backing today. I love a food latex backing coated well that is really stiff. Now I'm seeing too many real cheap backings that are all clay instead of latex. All you have to do is look at the carpet on a roll and see that the clay has begun to crack from being rolled. Once it's installed the backing is literally delaminated or to say areas of 2 pieces of mesh separated from the carpet. This stuff is so bad I won't do stretch jobs on it because I know there is a small percentage of integrity left of the backing because it have pulverized into clay powder. So, the thing I do is as part of my pre-inspection is go to a corner and and pull a small area up just to see the backing type and the pad, just takes a few seconds. Clay backing - look for delaminated areas bubbles and lower pressure.
Put a rotary scrubber on one of these if you're brave. Pulled carpet back once in a living room to stretch. Had about 6 wrinkles, under each wrinkle the backings (both) separated from the carpet. It was a horrifying mess.
I explain all this to my customer before I begin for liability sake and if the carpet is loose due to no power stretch I write it up as damaged goods and let the customer pursue a claim from my pre-inspection. Bottom line is not to get this type backing wet and check before you start.
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