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Old guy in Wichita showed me the closed loop pile trick and I still use it 8 years later
I was doing a rental turnover in Wichita back in 2016, just a small 2 bedroom place off Kellogg, and I had a roll of this cheap textured plush that kept showing every seam. I was on my hands and knees fighting it for probably 3 hours when this older installer named Ray who I'd never met before walked in to drop off some tack strip for the guy I was working with. He didn't say much at first, just watched me for a minute, then he knelt down and rubbed the pile against itself on both sides of the seam with his thumb and said "you gotta fight the nap, not the backing." Then he showed me how to run a seam weight along the top and use a damp rag to lift the pile so it blends instead of shadowing. I probably would have ripped that whole seam out and started over. I still think about that little trick every single time I get a plush carpet that wants to look awful at the seam, and I've passed it on to maybe 10 younger guys since. The sad part is Ray passed away a few years back and I never got to tell him how many jobs that one tip saved me on.
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the_matthew1mo ago
Man I've been laying carpet for 12 years and my dumb self still fights the backing half the time. Ray sounds like the kind of guy who could teach you more in 5 minutes than a whole weekend class. That nap trick with the damp rag is gold, gonna try it on the next plush job for sure.
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