Old timer told me to ditch the power stretcher for doorways, he was right

Guy named Rick from a job in Columbus, 30 years in the trade, watched me fight a power stretcher in a hallway for 15 minutes. He said use a knee kicker and a scrap piece of tackless for those tight transitions, and it took me 2 minutes after that. I was stubborn about it for a year until I tried it on a 12 foot run and never looked back. Anyone else found spots where the power stretcher just makes things worse?

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theagibson25d ago

I get where Rick was coming from, and the knee kicker trick is solid for tight spots, but I gotta disagree on the power stretcher being the problem there. Nine times out of ten when I see guys fighting one in a doorway, it's because they're trying to stretch the whole run in one go instead of breaking it up. I'll do a smaller stretch on each side of the doorway and lock it into the tackless, then handle the transition with a knee kicker. That way the carpet is actually tight across the whole floor and not just every couple feet where you kicked it in. The power stretcher gets the slack out from the middle of the room when the kicker just doesn't reach far enough. It's a tool, not a crutch, and I think ditching it completely is leaving yourself open to wavy carpet down the road.