Talked to a commercial installer at a job site and it flipped my approach to seams

I was doing a bedroom swap last Tuesday in a split level house and the guy running the crew next door was an older installer who's been at it since the 80s. He saw me fighting with a seam on some thick plush carpet and just said "you're trying to bury the tape instead of letting the glue grab the backing first." He showed me a trick where you heat the seam tape for like 5 seconds with a heat gun before you press the carpet down. I've been doing this for 7 years and never thought about warming the adhesive that way. It made the seam almost invisible and saved me from having to re-cut a whole strip. Has anyone else tried this method or do you stick to the standard cold roll?

3 comments

3 Comments

lunaf6716d agoTop Commenter

Tried the heat gun trick about a year ago on some berber carpet and it made a huge difference, the seams lay flat now where they used to show.

murray.drew15d ago

Hold on, @lunaf67 - a whole YEAR later and it's still holding flat? Thats wild, I honestly expected you'd have to redo it eventually. Berber is notoriously stubborn with seams, I've seen people use glue, weights, even tack strips and it still peeks up after a few months. The heat gun trick must really fuse the backing properly or something (not that I know the science behind it, just guessing). If it's been a full year without any curl, that's basically a miracle cure for berber carpet problems. Now I'm wondering if I should try this on a couple spots in my own house (a rental, so I'm always looking for cheap fixes).

clairen8515d ago

@lunaf67 that's awesome it worked out so well for you. Berber is such a pain with seams, always wanted to curl up. Glad the heat gun saved you the headache of a full replacement.