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Why does nobody tell new installers that a power stretcher beats a knee kicker on big rooms
Last month I did a 16 by 20 foot living room in a house near Dayton and tried a knee kicker first. It looked fine until the next day, when I could see ripples near the far wall where the carpet had relaxed. I re-stretched it with a power stretcher and the difference was night and day. The power stretcher pulls from the wall instead of just shoving from one spot, so the tension stays even across the whole room. I still use a knee kicker for closets and small baths, but for anything over 12 feet wide I won't touch one again. What do you all use on big open rooms, and do you ever mix both on the same job?
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the_oscar23d ago
I remember reading a post on a flooring forum a while back where a guy with 20 years in said the same thing. He called the knee kicker a "starter tool" and said the power stretcher is what actually holds the tension long term. His point was that carpet has memory, so if you only kick it, it creeps back over time, which is exactly what happened to you near that far wall. I mix both on the same job all the time, power stretcher for the main field and knee kicker to fine tune corners and tight spots. For big open rooms there is just no contest, the stretcher wins every time.
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