Used a knee kicker on a big stair job versus a power stretcher. Night and day.

Had to do a whole house with 22 stairs in Denver last month. Owner wanted a tight fit. Started with my old knee kicker. After the first flight, my knee was shot and the carpet still had a tiny ripple. Switched to my power stretcher for the next set. Took an extra 15 minutes to set up, but the stretch was perfect. No wrinkles, no sore knee. The difference was the even pressure. The knee kicker just can't get that full wall-to-wall pull on a long run. Finished the rest of the stairs with the stretcher and the lines were clean. Anyone else find the power stretcher is the only way to go on stairs, or is it just me?

4 comments

4 Comments

garcia.wren23d ago

The real problem is the carpet backing on long stair runs. A knee kicker just mashes the pile down in one spot. That backing needs a slow, even pull to tighten up across the whole width. A power stretcher does that. It's the difference between yanking a wrinkled sheet from one corner versus pulling it smooth from both sides.

keith16423d ago

That sheet comparison is spot on. It made me remember helping my dad carpet our old split level when I was a kid. He had this ancient knee kicker and was swearing at the stairs for an hour, just beating on one spot. The carpet looked okay until you walked on it a few times, then it went all loose and baggy right on the nose of the step. We ended up renting a stretcher the next day and it was a totally different job, just a smooth pull all the way across.

casey26823d ago

My buddy tried to save money on his basement stairs with a knee kicker. Two weeks later, there was a huge ripple right in the middle of the main step. It looked awful and you could trip on it. He had to call a pro with a power stretcher to actually fix it right. Watching that thing slowly pull everything tight was like magic compared to the knee kicker mess.

kevinw9423d ago

My uncle did his whole living room with just a knee kicker like 10 years ago and it still looks fine. I feel like people make this out to be a bigger deal than it is. If you take your time and know how to use the tool, it works okay for small jobs. That power stretcher looks cool but it's a ton of money and setup for a simple basement step. Sometimes a ripple just means the install was rushed, not that the tool is useless.