Hot take: kicking carpet to stretch it is fine, a wrinkle in a bedroom in Fort Wayne proved my knee kicker habit all wrong

Casey Fox · 2026-10-31T14:45:09.219487+00:00

For years I kicked every room, even big bedrooms, because that's how the guy who trained me did it. Last spring I did a 14x16 in Fort Wayne and three weeks later the homeowner called about a wrinkle near the closet, so I pulled the base and found I'd never gotten real stretch past the doorway. I borrowed a power stretcher from a guy down the road and the same room pulled tight with maybe half the effort, and I could feel the difference in the backing right away. Now I keep the knee kicker for closets and stairs only. Any of you still doing whole rooms by kick, and how do you get the far wall tight without a stretcher?

The Community Guide

Loading…

Hot take: kicking carpet to stretch it is fine, a wrinkle in a bedroom in Fort Wayne proved my knee kicker habit all wrong | Carpet Installers - The Community Guide