A helper on a job in Tulsa told me to stop kicking my carpet into the tack strip, and I hated hearing it

Simon Chen · 2026-09-18T00:20:03.552351+00:00

I've been stretching carpet for 11 years and I always gave the strip a good kick with my knee after hooking it, just how I was taught in Tulsa back in the day. Last month a guy helping me on a 3 bedroom in Broken Arrow said that kicking it just bends the pins down and the carpet lets go later, and he showed me a corner where it had already popped loose. I got annoyed at first because who is this guy, but he had a point and I started using the knee kicker with the head set right instead of muscling it. Went back to two of my older jobs in the same neighborhood about 6 weeks later and the rooms I kicked the old way had ripples right at the walls. Now I set it and pull, takes maybe 10 extra minutes a room but I haven't had a callback since. Anyone else here get shown up by a helper and end up changing how they work?

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A helper on a job in Tulsa told me to stop kicking my carpet into the tack strip, and I hated hearing it | Carpet Installers - Chatter Central