[wallabee4]

Very high quality carpeting (not berber style) thick, not shag, very little 'smile' as they say when you bend it back. Very good quality new padding. Installed over bare floor in 2 large rooms of a manufactured home. The installer was a single guy working alone, which seemed odd, but I know nothing about carpet install other than previously I've seen more than one guy work on an install and it certainly seems to me to be more than a 1-person job. By the way, new tack strips throughout.

So problem is carpet a little over 2 years later now is bunching up at many many places. Maybe started at about year ad half and we've seen it get progressively worse. So I'm thinking this needs restretching, right? But question I have is, this is a living room and bedroom with normal walking, normal furniture sitting on it, normal weekly or so vacuuming. No rolling chairs, no moving furniture pretty much after initial placement of typical furniture. Is it common that it needs restretching or is it because something was poorly done on the install? Or can manufactured home have anything to do with it (tied down, but not a foundation)? Or room size? Are bigger rooms more commonly needing restretching? I ask only because our previous home had same quality of carpet installed and it was in there for 9 years and never needed restretching and there we even moved/added furniture a few times, but it was stick-built home and overall a smaller room size. I've also lived in 2 rentals with lower quality carpeting that we lived on for 5 years and never needed restretching. My gut instinct is blame poor install, but I don't want to blame that if it's not the case or even if several factors could lead to it. I just know that in most other homes I've ever been in I've ever before had to restretch a carpet ever.

And finally, if I have never professionally cleaned the carpeting now that it's been installed for 2-1/2 years (I think it looks pretty clean, saw no reason to clean it. Might be microscopic stuff, but I'm not a germ a phobe, so thought if it didn't look dirty or smell dirty I didn't need to clean it. (We take our shoes off indoors and the dog stays off it. I don't have budget for professional cleaning costs.) So if it hasn't been cleaned does that somehow make a carpet need restretching over and above if a bad install is the likely cause of needing retretching? I ask because just in simply asking about this bunching up the company that sold us the carpet immediately pointed out that warranty is void if it's not cleaned professionally in 24 months. But I'm not asking about wear or stains, I'm asking about install... so again that taking a defense stance has made me suspicious... )

[tickle]

One usually sees this bunching up in hotel rooms from hotel grade carpeting.

You may see improvement if you have it professionally steam cleaned because it may 'shrink' back into shape. Also not unusual for one installer to work on the carpet install.

[creahands]

Most times if the carpet was not power stretched on original install it would need restretching in about 1 year. This is not the same as kick stretching.

A one man install is not uncommon unless carpet is too large for one man to handle.

Chuck