FAQs-More-Info
Getting Your Carpet Repaired
THE PROCESS AND THE CARPET REPAIRER
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Availability
We prefer non-urgent jobs as our schedule quickly fills up without them. However, if our schedule permits, we can reschedule some jobs to help with genuine urgent jobs.
Booking your job 2 – 3 weeks ahead usually guarantees a space.
Yes, we provide an after-hours carpet repair service. After-hours jobs usually require at least 2 -3 weeks notice.
Brisbane CBD, Brisbane Inner City Suburbs and Greater Brisbane Regions. Other Queensland or interstate areas subject to job size and confirmation.
Yes, we provide an Australia-wide carpet repair service. However, work outside of the Brisbane Region has prerequisite conditions, such as minimum job sizes and charges.
Carpet Repairs
The Australian Standard requires carpet installations to be power-stretched, and a knee kicker is then used to secure carpets onto the carpet gripper. Given this requirement, stretching carpets with just a knee kicker appears inappropriate.
Interestingly, the Australian Standard does not consider entry-level carpets when it comes to stretching. Entry-level carpets are manufactured with minimal material inputs, particularly the carpets’ backing, which is one of the areas from which they get their tensile strength. Caution must be exercised when installing or stretching entry-level carpets, as they can be easily damaged with a carpet knee kicker and even more so with a carpet power stretcher.
Considering the above, stretching carpet with a knee kicker will likely be effective if you have an entry-level carpet. However, if your carpet is mid-range to high-end, it should be stretched with both a power-stretcher and a knee kicker. Otherwise, your carpet stretching will be ineffective and short-term at best.
We have been power-stretching carpets for decades, and moving your furniture out of the rooms has never been a requirement of ours. It is unnecessary because we use vinyl slides underneath your furniture to move it as required.
Carpets are power-stretched along wall edges from one side of the room to the other at a rate of about 25cm for each power stretch. If the furniture is in the room, it simply needs to be slid from one side to the other side and then slid back again. We do request customers to move electrical and personal items from tops of bedside tables, chests of draws, etc.
Dodgy Carpet Repairers
Fake tradies are dodgy tradesmen who offer to do maintenance work on your home or office. They then disappear with your money, leaving unfinished or substandard work.
They offer cheap rates for maintenance jobs such as driveway resurfacing, painting, roof repairs, carpet repairs, and carpet cleaning.
Some fake tradies have become sophisticated in how they attract business. Even using social media, subscribing to pay-per-click search engine advertising, and websites with live chat sessions that look genuine. They move quickly and usually only give a first name and mobile number – so contacting them afterwards is difficult.
For more information about Fake Tradies see:
https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/consumers-and-businesses/scams/travelling-con-men
https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/99690
https://www.qld.gov.au/law/laws-regulated-industries-and-accountability/queensland-laws-and-regulations/fair-trading-services-programs-and-resources/fair-trading-latest-news/media-statements/2023/court-outcome-red-earth-valley-canvas-and-trim
We have at least one long-running carpet repair scam happening in Australia.
They reach unsuspecting victims by mass-producing templated websites (for almost every suburb in Australia), often dominating pay-per-click search engine results with up to 10 websites or more. These websites are all very similar: they have 24/7, a prominent mobile number on the page, their page copy contains meaningless babble lacking informed and knowledgeable insights, and they are stuffed with keywords to influence search engine rankings. They have no positive online feedback. They have many registered domain names that do not appear connected to any Australian-registered business.
South East Queenslanders are fooled into believing this out-of-state business is local and are enticed by their live chat. There, they are quoted $250-$300 per patch and persuaded to immediately make a booking (with bookings often available the next day)—sometimes harassing callers who do not book with 2-3 successive phone calls.
When they arrive, their only tools are a paintbrush, a pot of contact glue, a knife to cut the carpet, and pressure-sensitive tape. They quickly cut out the damaged carpet, often freehand and crooked. Then, they use the cutout carpet area as a template for cutting the new carpet patch (usually taken from a wardrobe, which is left with a missing piece of carpet). Then it’s out with the glue pot and disposable paintbrush. The existing carpet installation is quickly glued to the underlay at the patch area. Then, the new carpet patch is glued to the underlay.
When they are finished, they say to put something heavy on the area for 24 hours. Then, their victims are often told the job took longer than quoted and will cost them more. They refuse to leave until they have been paid for their dodgy work.
Depending on the type of carpet, a professional carpet repairer takes at least 90 minutes to install a new carpet patch. These glue-pot scammers take about 30 minutes or less to do one of their carpet patches, regardless of the type of carpet.
Beware, these scammers do not appreciate anybody’s carpet and do not take responsibility for any carpet problem. Their methods and processes do not conform to the relevant Australian Standard and contravene Australian consumer protection laws. Unhappy victims complain of low-grade repairs with unsightly joins, mismatched carpet patterns and grain directions, wardrobes with missing carpet pieces, and repairs that quickly fall apart with regular vacuuming and wear and tear.
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Dodgy carpet repairers often lack the essential tools. At a minimum, basic tools would include the following seven items: a carpet knife, carpet shears, a carpet awl, a carpet knee kicker, edge sealing glue, a carpet iron, and tape for hot-joining carpet together.
Dodgy carpet repairers usually stretch loose carpets with just a knee kicker. The Australian Standard requires carpet installations to be power-stretched, and a knee kicker is then used to secure the carpet onto the carpet gripper. Given this requirement, it is mostly inappropriate to stretch carpet with a knee kicker (see also, Carpet stretching is just a knee kicker okay?)
They will not consider or incorrectly determine the pattern or grain direction of the carpet repair, and the carpet repair will be of substandard quality with visible carpet joins (it does not conform to the Standard).
Dodgy carpet repairers will top cut your carpet with a straight edge, or worse; they will cut it freehand and then use the cut carpet as a template for the new piece.
They will not edge seal your carpet before joining it (the Standard requires edge sealing).
They will glue your carpet to the underlay and likewise with the new piece and then tell you to leave something heavy on the repair for 24 hours or so (does not conform to the Standard).
A dodgy carpet repairer’s common cliche about their poor quality work is: “The repair will wear in.”
It’s best to do your due diligence by searching online and reading customer reviews.
If you ask the right questions, you can spot a fake tradie before they get to your house. We’ve included several questions below you can choose from if you want to test a carpet repairer. Beware of them if they can’t answer the following questions:
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Is there a Standard for installing carpets?
The relevant Standard is AS 2455.1:2019 Textile Floor Coverings – Installation Practice.
Do you need electricity to repair my carpet?
If not, they may be the Glue Pot carpet repairers.
Do you edge seal the carpet?
The Standard states that the carpet must be edge sealed before joining. Correctly edge sealing carpet prevents carpet tufts from falling out and carpet joins from delaminating.
If yes to the above, what edge sealing method do you use?
There are three methods of edge sealing: latex glue, hot melt glue, and a solvent-based edge sealer used for direct-stick carpets.
Do you use the Koolglide carpet iron to join the carpet?
The Koolglide carpet iron has become the benchmark for professional carpet repairers. The standard carpet seaming iron is not the preferred choice of professional carpet repairers.
My doorway join is coming apart. What are my options for repairing it?
Beware if a carpet repairer’s first and only option is to patch a faulty carpet join. If possible, it is always best to uninstall a faulty carpet join and then properly reinstall it in accordance with the Standard. Carpet joins are often faulty because they were not edge-sealed. The only way to determine if a defective carpet join can be uninstalled and reinstalled is to go onsite and tension test the carpet first.
My carpet has a pattern. Is it easy to match the carpet patch’s pattern with the existing carpet?
It is not easy to match a carpet pattern on a stretch-fit carpet installation with a spare piece of carpet or with a carpet that has been removed from the robe. This is because the carpet’s pattern was stretched out of shape when initially installed. The pattern is out to varying degrees depending on how much tension was applied by the installer/s. Whereas, a piece of leftover carpet or carpet from within a sliding robe was not stretched and still retains its original pattern repeat.
CRAIM has developed techniques for successfully pattern-matching carpet patches.
Yes, we have seen and repaired many substandard carpet repairs done by dodgy tradesmen, carpet repairers and carpet cleaners. See Is there a Carpet Repair Scam in Australia?
Dodgy tradies who repair carpets do not comply with the Australian Standard or generally accepted carpet installation practices. These dodgy tradies fail the Standard in many areas, including crooked carpet cuts, carpet overcuts, incorrect grain direction, yarn folded under at joins, carpet not edge sealed, incorrect bonding method of carpet to underlay, and carpet incorrectly stretched.
Having a fake tradie in your house leaves an awful aftertaste. These Glue Pot carpet repairs are disturbing, unsightly, and a waste of money because they quickly fall apart with normal wear and tear and vacuuming.
Insurance
Yes, our insurance policy provides coverage for public liability, $20,000,000, and Property in Care Custody or Control, $250,000. Certificate of Insurance Currency provided with all official quotes.
Yes, customers receive a Certificate of Insurance Currency with all official quotes.
Invisibility
If you have a matching spare carpet, we will likely achieve 100% invisibility.
We can install high-invisibility carpet joins on carpets this age. However, wear and tear affects the appearance of carpet in the following ways: pile reversal, pile flattening, pile wear, and carpet fade from artificial light and sunlight. A high-invisibility carpet repair needs more than good joins; it also needs any spare carpet to match the wear and tear of the area to be repaired. The matching process is a case-by-case situation. We have successfully developed techniques to match carpets better when they show signs of wear and tear. We can often achieve above 85% invisibility on carpets 2 – 3 years old.
Join work usually requires an on-site assessment. We regularly achieve above 85 – 90% invisibility for carpet joins of this age.
The relevant Standard is AS 2455.1:2019 Textile Floor Coverings – Installation Practice.
We have developed a high-invisibility carpet joining technique, which is more robust and less noticeable than commonly seen carpet joins. We recommend our high-invisibility joining technique for carpet repairs requiring join work, including carpet patches and frayed and unsightly carpet joins
Payments
Acceptable payments include PayID, bank transfer and cash.
We do not provide trading accounts; customers must pay on completion of the job.
We understand some businesses require a few days to process payments, and we are willing to provide accounts for them in these situations.
Yes, all customers receive payment receipts.
Quotes
Yes, we provide free fixed-price carpet repair quotes. Once we receive your enquiry, we will set about completing your quote. At times, we may need to call in to assess/check the carpet before providing a quote; these quotes are also free.
Carpet repair quotes usually take 2 – 3 working days to complete. However, they can take up to 5 – 7 working days during peak times.
Our quotes detail the scope of work and form part of any agreement to repair your carpet. Verbal estimates are subject to change and can be awkward to enforce. Our quotes protect all parties, as they are fixed-price, transparent and detailed, without obligation, and there are never any hidden extras. Furthermore, our quote process quantifies different aspects of your job for us, such as travel, materials, and how long it will take, making it easier for you to manage your time and for us to schedule a time slot if you proceed.
Spare Carpet
We are not carpet retailers or suppliers; you should contact a reputable carpet retailer if you want to replace your carpet. However, suppose you need to use your wardrobe carpet to repair damaged carpet. In that case, we’ll do our best to locate a matching carpet to install back into your wardrobe. We stock a range of carpets and also have access to buy-in carpets.
The minimum buy-in carpet is usually one broadloom metre (1 metre x 3.66 metres or 3.66 square metres), and prices start at about $90.00 per broadloom metre.
Yes, we will do our best to locate a matching carpet to install back in your wardrobe. We stock a range of carpets and also have access to buy-in carpets. The minimum buy-in carpet is usually one broadloom metre (1 metre x 3.66 metres or 3.66 square metres), and prices start at about $90.00 per broadloom metre.
If your carpet is still available, we can order some for you. Otherwise, you can order it yourself. It is easier to source carpets with the following information: carpet manufacturer, name, and colour.
If your carpet is no longer available, it is often difficult or impossible to repair damaged carpets when there is no spare carpet. However, sometimes, there are exceptions with damage, like faulty carpet joins, pulled runs, and carpet tears. These exceptions are case-by-case situations and often require onsite assessments/quotes.
The answer to this question depends on how well your carpet offcuts match the damaged area. If they are a good match, we can make a larger piece of carpet from them with our high-invisibility carpet joining process, ensuring you get the best possible carpet repair job.
Even though joining multiple pieces of carpet is an option, we must consider it on a case-by-case basis. It is best suited to high-end carpets or when the particular carpet is unavailable. Depending on how many carpet pieces we must join, it may be cost-effective to buy a minimum quantity if your carpet is still available from the carpet store.
