Helpful Hint: Minor rug repairs can be done at home; major repairs and all repairs to valuable rugs are best left to a professional. If a rug frays, however, stitch the area to slow down the damage until it can be professionally repaired.

Repairing Loose Carpeting
by James C

When carpeting is installed in a home, it is stretched over your floor onto tack strips which secure it on the sides. Over time with general use and age your carpet will actually stretch out. This will often show itself as wrinkles and loose spots in your carpeting. So how do you repair these wrinkles, is there a way? Yes, to get rid of these unsightly wrinkles, you need to have your rugs professionally stretched. If your carpet is less than a few years old, you might

actually have a labor warranty that will cover the stretching costs. Before you hire anyone, check to see if your carpet is still under this warranty. If not, you will have to pay for the charges out of pocket. Unfortunately stretching is not cheap because it involves quite a bit of work.

The technicians will have to move all or most of your furniture out of a room, detach the carpet from the tack strip, cut off the excess carpet and then reattach it to the tack strips. This can take hours. Expect to pay around $3 to $4 per square yard for this service. That makes 900 square feet of carpet cost around $300 to $400 to stretch. Sound expensive? Well it is but it is better than the alternative.

If you do not have your carpeting stretched the problem will only get worse. The carpet will continue to get looser and the wrinkles will get larger and more noticeable. This not only causes the carpet to look bad but it can also shorten the life of your carpeting. Loose rugs wears quicker than properly installed and stretched carpet. As expensive as carpet is today it makes since to get the problem taken care of soon as possible to prevent expensive replacement costs.

If you are not sure what to do, it doesn't hurt to call a carpet repair service. Most will be happy to give you a free estimate and can give you recommendations as to how you should proceed.

Who knows, you may only need one room stretched instead of your whole house. You do not know until you call.

About the author:
The author of this article, James C operates a carpet resource website. Find local carpet cleaners offering Denver carpet cleaning, Louisville carpet cleaning and Chicago carpet cleaning.