Wall to Wall Carpet Buckling?

Suntydt
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December 4, 20090 found this helpful

Here is the trick; as long as your carpet hasn't thinned real bad you can fix this fairly easily.

Let me elaborate; if it is buckling up in a small area, like near a corner, you can fix it rather easily.

You can rent what is called a "knee kicker" in the profession. Many rental places have these. You also need something like a trowel. Something rectangular preferably with a handle on one of the long sides. You use this to push down the carpet. More on that is a sec.

1st - pull up a small area of the carpet in the corner closest to the buckle. About 3 to 5 feet along each wall. Let the carpet drop down into the corner.

Educational moment; look at the area along the wall where the carpet lays down. You will see a wooden strip all the way up the wall. This is called tack strip. It has little nails sticking thru it at an angle toward the wall. These nails grab the carpet and hold it in place.

2nd - the knee kicker has a big square end with teeth on the bottom to grab the carpet and a big square pad on the other end to hit with your knee.
Go to the spot in the carpet where the edge is just pulled up and set the knee kicker about 2 inches away from the wall on the carpet. Teeth end toward the wall, knee end into the room. On all fours hold the kicker with your right hand firmly and smack the pad with your knee.This process will slowly push the carpet to the wall.

3 - Inch up toward your corner (about 3 to 4 inches) and repeat step 2 until you reach the corner of the room.

4 - Go to the area of the carpet along the other wall where the carpet just comes up out of the tack strip and repeat the steps above to the corner again.

If your buckling is really bad you might not be able to use a knee kicker to resolve your problem. It may require a carpet stretcher and very few places rent them. It may be easier to ask around and see if anyone knows someone who installs carpet and could stop by to touch up your ripples for a couple bucks when they are in the area.
Just an FYI, if you don't know what your doing with a carpet stretcher (and sometimes even when you do) you take the chance of putting holes in the wall of your room. I've seen professionals do just that; the stretcher pops loose and punctures the wall. I guess it would help to understand a carpet stretcher is a long piped tool that pushes against a board along the wall opposite the area of carpet your stretching. It literally crosses the room.

Hope this helps.