Changed my mind about power stretchers after talking to an old timer

I used to think a knee kicker was good enough for pretty much any job. Then I was working a living room in Lancaster, PA and this guy named Pete who's been installing for 40 years came over to borrow my tape measure. He looked at my work and just said "you're gonna be back here in 6 months fixing that wrinkle." He showed me how a power stretcher distributes tension way more even than a knee kicker. Next day I bought a used one for $150 and honestly I haven't had a callback since. Has anyone else found that the power stretcher really cuts down on service calls?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan_butler933d agoMost Upvoted

That line "you're gonna be back here in 6 months" really hits home. I had the same wake up call after I tried skipping the power stretcher on a big family room carpet, and sure enough the customer called me back about a bubble near the doorway about three months later. Had to go back and restretch the whole thing, which was way more work than just hauling my power stretcher up the stairs in the first place. Once I started using it on every room (even small closets), my callback rate dropped to basically zero.

shanel133d ago

I saw a carpet installation blog mention the same thing about power stretchers, totally agree with @rowan_butler93 on that one.