Eight ways to fix a carpet
Every service below fixes carpet that is already on your floor. None of them means tearing it out. Between the eight, they cover almost everything that sends a homeowner looking for a replacement quote: wrinkles, holes, burns, failing seams, a smell that won’t lift, worn padding, stains and a loose transition strip. Find the one that matches what you’re looking at, or call and describe it and we will tell you.
A whole room that waves like a wrinkle underfoot, especially near a doorway or a fireplace hearth, is carpet stretching. A hole, a burn, a tear, or pet damage confined to one spot is repair if it covers more than a couple of square feet, or patching if it is small enough for a donor piece cut from a closet. A visible split or fraying line, usually in a hallway or right at a doorway, is a seam coming apart. A smell that gets worse when the room warms up or a window is closed, even after the carpet has been cleaned, means the problem lives in the pad rather than on the surface: that is pet odor removal, or a pad replacement if it has gone that far. A fresh spill or a stain that has set in is stain removal, matched to what caused it rather than treated with one bottle for everything. And a strip that rocks underfoot where carpet meets tile or hardwood is a transition repair. If more than one of these sounds right, that is a normal call to get, not an unusual one.
A power stretcher takes the slack out of the whole floor and re-secures it to the tack strips. Wrinkles and ripples go, and they stay gone. Lifetime guarantee.
Most rooms take two to three hours from the first knee-kick to the last tack strip, and the result carries a lifetime guarantee.
Carpet Stretching, in detail
Burns, tears, fraying and pet damage. The damaged section comes out and a donor piece goes in with the pile running the right way, so the fix reads as carpet rather than as a repair.
Most repairs are finished in one to two hours, on cut pile, loop pile and patterned carpet alike.
Carpet Repair, in detail
For damage confined to a few square feet. Donor carpet comes from a closet, from under furniture, or from leftover install scrap, and the seam is closed with a radio-wave iron.
The donor is cut so the pile runs the same direction as the surrounding carpet, which is what makes the patch disappear instead of reading as a square.
Carpet Patching, in detailSmaller jobs, usually finished inside an hour, and just as often the reason a room still feels wrong after a bigger repair is done.
Damage in one place
A seam or a strip failing at a single point in the floor, not the whole room.
Separating and fraying seams re-closed with heat-activated tape and a $500 radio-wave iron, a stronger bond than the one most original installations used. Most take under an hour.
Carpet Seam Repair, in detailLoose or cracked strips between carpet and tile or hardwood, re-secured or replaced. Doorways and hallways are where they go first. Usually under an hour per location.
Transition Repair, in detailUnder the carpet
Problems you can smell or feel underfoot before you can ever see them.
The carpet comes up and the pad and subfloor get an enzyme treatment that breaks down uric acid crystals rather than masking them. Allow 24 to 48 hours to dry.
Pet Odor Removal, in detailWorn, compressed or moisture-damaged padding out, subfloor cleaned, new pad matched to the carpet and the traffic it takes. Usually paired with stretching or odor work.
Pad Installation, in detailTreated by stain type, not by one bottle for everything. Enzyme cleaners for pet stains, pH-balanced agents for food and drink. Nylon, polyester and wool.
Stain Removal, in detailNot sure which one you need?
Photo estimates are free, and most homeowners find their problem is smaller and cheaper to fix than they assumed.