Apex Carpet Services
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Ripples, waves, or wrinkles down the hallway

Carpet Stretching

Your carpet's wrinkled because it wasn't stretched right. We fix that in about two hours.

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Spec

Material
Existing carpet, re-stretched and re-seated
Typical window
Most homes 2 to 3 hours
Subfloor prep
Tack strip replaced where it has failed. Padding checked and replaced if it has broken down.
Warranty
Pending confirmation

Why it happened

Your carpet is wrinkled because it was not stretched right when it went in.

Carpet is installed under tension. It gets pulled tight across the room with a power stretcher and hooked onto tack strip at the walls. Done properly it stays flat for the life of the carpet.

Done with a knee kicker instead, which is faster and easier and how a lot of cheap installs happen, the carpet goes in under far less tension than it needs. It looks fine for a year. Then it relaxes, and the slack has to go somewhere. It shows up as ripples, usually running across a hallway or in front of a couch that gets pushed around.

The carpet itself is usually fine.

What we do

We pull the carpet loose from the tack strip along the walls we need, power-stretch it back to proper tension, trim the excess, and re-seat it. Where the tack strip has rusted or pulled away from the subfloor, we replace it, because hooking new tension onto failed strip just puts you back here in a year.

While it is up, we look at the pad. Padding breaks down before carpet does, and flat, crushed pad under good carpet makes the whole floor feel dead. If yours is done we will tell you, and replacing it while the carpet is already loose is far cheaper than doing it as its own job later.

How long it takes

Most homes take two to three hours. A single room is often closer to an hour. You do not need to leave, and we move furniture ourselves.

When stretching is not the answer

We will tell you if it is not worth doing.

If the carpet is delaminating, meaning the backing is separating from the fibers, stretching will not hold and it will ripple again quickly. If the traffic lanes are worn through to the backing, you are paying labor on carpet that needs replacing within a year or two anyway. And if the ripples came from a water event, the pad underneath is likely compromised and that is a different job.

If that is your carpet, we will tell you on the phone before you book anything.

Where we work

Carpet stretching from Logan to Nephi, including Murray, Sandy, Midvale, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Millcreek, Taylorsville, West Jordan, South Jordan, Riverton, Draper, Lehi, American Fork, Bountiful, and Layton.

Questions we get asked

Do you charge for an estimate?

No. We come out, measure, look at the subfloor, and give you a written number. Bring us a spec sheet if you have already chosen a product from a showroom and we will price the install against it.

How soon can you get out here?

Call and we will tell you. Repairs are usually the fastest to schedule because they are short jobs. Full installs depend on material lead time, which is set by the supplier rather than by us.

Do I need to move my furniture?

No, we move it. Empty out closets, take things off shelves, and disconnect electronics. We handle the heavy pieces. Tell us in advance about anything unusually heavy or fragile, like a piano, a gun safe, or an aquarium.

What makes your installers different?

Our installers get in-person training on the manufacturers' own factory floors, on the specific products they install. Most flooring crews learn on the job, which means they learn on your house.

Can we stay in the house during the work?

For most jobs, yes. We work room by room where we can. Hardwood refinishing is the exception: the sanding is loud and the finish needs a few days to cure, so most people stay elsewhere or close off that part of the house.

Should I replace the pad when I replace carpet?

Almost always yes. Padding breaks down faster than carpet does, and good carpet over crushed pad feels dead underfoot and wears out early. Reusing old pad also voids most carpet manufacturer warranties.

Will the ripples come back after stretching?

Not if it is power-stretched and the tack strip is sound. Ripples come back when a floor is kicked in again instead of stretched, or when failed tack strip was reused. If the carpet backing is delaminating, stretching will not hold and we will tell you that before we start.

How many times can hardwood be refinished?

Solid hardwood will usually take several refinishes across its life, depending on how much wood sits above the tongue. Engineered hardwood depends entirely on veneer thickness: a thick veneer takes a light pass, a thin one takes none. We check at a vent or a threshold before quoting.

Can you just regrout instead of replacing the tile?

Only if the substrate is sound. Grout cracks because something under it moved, so regrouting a floor that still flexes puts you back in the same place within about a year. We tap the floor and look at how the cracks run before we recommend it.

Can you match my tile if some are broken?

If you have leftover tile from the original install, yes, and it will match perfectly. Without attic stock, an exact match on a discontinued product often is not possible. We will show you how close we can get before you commit to the repair.

Also

Other repairs we do

Get a quote

Tell us what the floor is doing

Send a few photos and we will tell you what it needs. If it is not worth repairing, we will say so.

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