Carpet Repair only as side business

[MSLI]

Hi Daniel, If you have a good temperament, and understanding of Carpet construction, then have at it, because most installers I’ve run into are not interested. Like this job I struggled with yesterday .......Masland Cpts. I should have never attempted this, but my ego got in the way, like it almost always does. Do yourself a favor, and evaluate the conditions before jumping in......examples: does the carpet have a good tuft bind and well secured secondary backing ? And can the carpet be removed with-out weakening both ?..... In my case yesterday, if my ego allowed the evaluation, I would not have attempted the repair. Hopefully they do not call for phase 2 .........PS > Latex seam sealer is an absolute must for a repair like this.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Mike why did you take out such a wide strip, but possibly me with my trusty glue gun would have laid in just the 2 rows that were missing. Or reburled it.

 

[C.J.]

Definitely didn't mean to offend any contributors to this thread. I've been careful to be as respectful as possible.
A) I'm not a fire fighter, unless that is a figurative remark. I have been working in building maintenance for nearly 15 years. I just broke $20 an hour which is the most I've ever made, and the job has cheap enough health insurance for me to take care of my family so I have no intention of leaving.
B) Likewise, I have no intention of doing installs. Of any kind. I am looking to perform repairs only on carpet. That's what I have basic experience doing, not full complex instalIs. I will not be taking any work from installers. I have much more integrity than to lie about my abilities and undercut more talented people just to make a buck.
C) I have always enjoyed the challenge of a repair on the carpets at the buildings and properties I've worked. Being able to do it more often in various settings, get better at it, and make some extra income is my goal. I'm not too proud to tell a customer I can't make a repair. I'll reccommend they obtain quotes to replace the carpeting. And, no I will not do the install.

I have nothing but respect for the tradepeople here and the work they do everyday. All of you have more experience than me and I know my place. I actually hope I can create referals for some installers locally, and that would be my contribution.

Thanks again!

I say roll with it cus that’s the American way. You’re doin alright but an extra $50, $75 or $100 bucks here n there certainly doesn’t hurt. Could be a nice evening out for you and the wife or a trip somewhere with the family. Maybe even save up a little sumthin sumthin for investing or who knows what. You’re clearly willing to work to achieve the things you want in life and that is what America is all about. Some of the old timers prolly got hosed at one time by someone undercutting them but that, like it or not, is also what America is all about.

 

[MSLI]

Mike why did you take out such a wide strip, but possibly me with my trusty glue gun would have laid in just the 2 rows that were missing. Or reburled it.

Hi Daris, I was not blessed with high dexterity like that and there was another pull I needed to eliminate, ( excuses excuses ) I like the patch to be heavy / slightly wider, as the larger width would allow a better chance to work puckers out into the glue.......Can you really reburl a tufted carpet ?

 

[Mark Brown]

Hi Daris, I was not blessed with high dexterity like that and there was another pull I needed to eliminate, ( excuses excuses ) I like the patch to be heavy / slightly wider, as the larger width would allow a better chance to work puckers out into the glue.......Can you really reburl a tufted carpet ?

I can confirm that you can
I can confirm that I would not wish to do it again lol

 

[Dchreha]

Hi Daniel, If you have a good temperament, and understanding of Carpet construction, then have at it, because most installers I’ve run into are not interested. Like this job I struggled with yesterday .......Masland Cpts. I should have never attempted this, but my ego got in the way, like it almost always does. Do yourself a favor, and evaluate the conditions before jumping in......examples: does the carpet have a good tuft bind and well secured secondary backing ? And can the carpet be removed with-out weakening both ?..... In my case yesterday, if my ego allowed the evaluation, I would not have attempted the repair. Hopefully they do not call for phase 2 .........PS > Latex seam sealer is an absolute must for a repair like this.

Thank you for the advice and photos! I will be sure to put any eagerness aside and make sure I evaluate a carpet's overall condition first. I'm sure I will run into senarios where a customer wants something fixed that instead should have been replaced a long time ago! I'm also going to work on expanding my knowledge of carpet construction. I downloaded CRI's The Carpet Primer and it looks pretty detailed. That will be lunch break reading tomorrow.

 

[highup]

Dont mind the old folks, they are crusty from a life time of floor laying

You would be willing to fill a segment of the industry that most guys cannot even be bothered with. Any floor layer worth even a lick of salt is busier than snot these days. Last time I was asked to do a restretch for someone I just turned my phone off for a couple of days and cancelled the renewal on my webpage

You keep coming for advice, I will give out as much as I can and hope that you can do as many restretches and repairs as you want so that I do not have to!!

Haha.
None of the installers around here want to do repair work. I talked to a customer one time and they said they'd called six installers and I was the only one that called back.
Up until things got crazy a year ago in October, I did tons of repair work.
A lot of it was repairing other guys work.

 

[DarisMulkin]

For my last 9 years of being a paid employee all I did was repair work, mostly repairing Berber seams and pulls. I drove a 125 miles once to repair one pulled loop in a Berber. Wife and I made a weekend out of it, it was paid for, what the hey!

 

[Kyle Nelson]

I’d love to have a guy to pawn off repairs on! I’m charging $200 for minimum and no one seems to mind.

 

[Tile Tom]

I’d love to have a guy to pawn off repairs on! I’m charging $200 for minimum and no one seems to mind.

I'm doing $250 minimum and the phone never stops.
I'm just making up numbers at this point, lol. Going to do a 40-50 sq ft backsplash tomorrow for $1500???

I thought that would scare them off....I was wrong.

Makes me wonder how long until the bottom falls out on this cash wave?

 

[highup]

I'm doing $250 minimum and the phone never stops.
I'm just making up numbers at this point, lol. Going to do a 40-50 sq ft backsplash tomorrow for $1500???

I thought that would scare them off....I was wrong.

Makes me wonder how long until the bottom falls out on this cash wave?

Holy crap that sounds like a good plan.
In that case I would tell them that your minimum charge is 1 million but because their job is small it would probably only cost $2,500 and you can save them a few bucks.

 

[Incognito]

Thank you for the advice and photos! I will be sure to put any eagerness aside and make sure I evaluate a carpet's overall condition first. I'm sure I will run into senarios where a customer wants something fixed that instead should have been replaced a long time ago! I'm also going to work on expanding my knowledge of carpet construction. I downloaded CRI's The Carpet Primer and it looks pretty detailed. That will be lunch break reading tomorrow.

*****************************
I've done a few hundred COMMERCIAL carpet repairs over my career, next to no residential but the carpet in department stores (30 years ago) was generally similar to apartment grade and builder grade residential carpeting. It will be extremely important for you to distinguish between when there's some value you can add with your repair skill and when to walk away. There's the issue of liability in commercial where "Trip and Fall Artist" is a very real thing. Less so in homes/apartments but what you'll run up against there are low IQ belligerent customers who want something for nothing or at least miracles for pennies on the dollar. Learning when to walk away will be the harshest learning curve. I don't know of anything I could tell you but you have to learn the hard way.

What retail store/regional managers wanted was a quick fix to eliminate real trip hazards and eye sores. That's really something I was able to do in 95% of cases given enough TIME and MATERIALS to work with. We did/do repairs on nearly exclusively cost plus basis with a 4 hour minimum charge at $87.50 an hour. In commercial office space it's essentially the same deal with glue down carpets as opposed to carpeting over pad. Some 5-15% of circumstance dictate you walk away to decline liability when you cant fix it because it's so worn through it's going to be a trip hazard or the cosmetic repairs will look worse than the shabby existing appearance.