Fancy seam iron almost ruined a $3,000 job in a condo lobby in Chicago

I was working on a high end condo lobby in downtown Chicago last month. Got a call to seam a broadloom job that had to be perfect because the building manager was walking through every day. I pulled out my new power seam iron that cost me over $200 and thought it was going to save me time. Halfway through the first seam I noticed the glue was bubbling unevenly and the tape was curling up. Turns out the temp sensor was off by like 40 degrees and it was burning the backing. I had to rip out 12 feet of seam and redo it with my old iron that I bought used for $40. That old beat up thing never let me down. Anyone else had a new tool mess up a job way worse than your old gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_rose12d ago

Halfway through the first seam I noticed the glue was bubbling unevenly" - sounds like a bummer, but is a 12 foot redo really that big a deal on a $3000 job? You already had your backup iron ready to go, so you were back on track in what, an extra hour? Seems more like a minor annoyance than a disaster.

gibson.troy12d ago

Yeah, I get what you're saying, and I don't totally disagree that it's fixable. But I think you're underselling how much it sucks to tear out a brand new seam you just spent time getting perfect. Even if it's just 12 feet on a big job, that's your rhythm broken, your materials wasted, and your time stretched thin. The backup iron didn't make the glue bubble in the first place, and it doesn't get back that hour of your life you weren't planning on giving up. It's not a disaster, but it's a real pain in the ass to have to stop everything and fix something that should have gone smooth. I feel for the person who posted, that kind of thing just kills your momentum for the rest of the day.