Have you ever looked at a broken appliance and thought to yourself "I bet that can be fixed." If so, you need to make a call to a repairs specialist. Most things can be repaired — you just have to call the right person. There are repair professionals who focus on electronics, others who focus on home components like roofs and gutters, and still others who make repairs to home appliances, exclusively. Help is a phone call away.
Even though someone else is doing the work, however, we do think it's important for you to know a bit about repairs and restoration. That's why we're providing helpful articles on this blog. Fix it to the max — we know you can!
Wrinkling and buckling on your carpet can drastically shorten its life. Not only are the wrinkles unattractive, they also can lead to increased wear on the raised areas. Further, wrinkles and buckles pose a tripping hazard in the home.
Causes
There are multiple reasons why a carpet may begin to develop wrinkles a year or even longer after installation. The most likely culprit is that the carpet wasn't properly stretched during installation. Then, after months of regular foot traffic on the carpet, wrinkles start to develop as the fibers naturally relax and stretch. Placing and moving heavy furniture on top of the carpet can lead to the problem or make it worse.
Another common cause for the development of carpet wrinkles is your local climate. Carpets installed in high-humidity areas tend to stretch more because the excess moisture makes the fibers swell. Further, the adhesives used during installation may give out sooner, thus resulting in wrinkles and buckling.
Prevention
The best prevention is to ensure the carpet is properly stretched at the time of installation. If furniture movement is the culprit, then place slides beneath the legs of your furniture so you can move items as needed, without stressing the carpet. Even better, get help moving items so you can lift the furniture completely off the carpet when moving.
There are fewer prevention options when humidity is the issue. Installing a whole-house dehumidifier can help, but you will first need to repair the carpet to remove any existing wrinkles that were caused by the higher moisture content in the air.
Repair
Fortunately, wrinkles in carpet can be completely repaired if the rest of the carpet is still in good condition. You will need to empty the room of all furniture before the process can begin. Then, a carpet repair service will attach either end of the carpet to a stretching device, called power stretcher pipes. This device pulls the carpet properly taut, then the carpet is reaffixed to the subfloor.
After the repair is completed, you may also need to have the carpet cleaned. Dirt tends to accumulate on the top of large wrinkles, which can give the carpeting a streaky appearance. Fortunately, deep cleaning and stain removal will fix this issue. Further, shampooing the carpet will also restore the carpet's nap so that the old wrinkles are no longer visible.
Contact a carpet repair service in your area for more help with prolonging the useful life of your carpeting.