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Showerthought: a 30 year installer told me my seams looked "factory" and I finally dropped the cheap iron
Had a guy named Ray with about 30 years in the trade walk a job I finished in Fresno last month, and he pointed at one of my seams and said it looked "factory," which I took as a compliment until he followed up with "but your rows are fighting each other." He meant I was stretching one side tighter than the other, so the pile leaned in opposite directions at the seam and you could see it under the raking light from the front window. I used to crank my knee kicker hard on both sides to avoid a gap and figured tight was tight, but he showed me how to keep the tension even and just trim the edges square with a fresh blade before I seal. Since then I switched to a proper seam iron with a heat setting I actually keep an eye on, plus a seam roller right after, and did about 900 square feet in a rental unit with zero peaking. It takes me maybe 10 more minutes a seam but I am not getting callbacks about a ridge popping up in August. Any of you guys run into that where one side was pulled way tighter than the other and the client spotted it before you did?
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knight.uma9h ago
Notice how the fix is almost never about pulling harder, it's about pulling even. I see it everywhere once I started looking. My buddy grills and keeps cranking one side of the lid down, thinking tight is tight, and the thing sits crooked. Same with hanging a shelf or lacing up boots, one side snug and the other loose and the whole thing leans. Ray gave you the real trick, even tension beats max tension.
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