Help! My Carpet Is Buckling! What Can I Do?

A buckling carpet is never a good thing. A number of things will cause your carpet to buckle, causing unsightly ridges, lumps and bulges in your floor:
• improper installation – if your carpet is not installed properly and professionally – it will likely not be stretched sufficiently or secured correctly, causing wrinkling and buckling.
• using the wrong carpet padding or cushion – different types of carpet pile are meant to be used with specific types of carpet padding, so that the carpet is properly secured and supported. This is why it’s never a good idea to try to cut corners on the quality of carpet padding; use the type of padding the carpet manufacturer – or your professional installer – suggests.
• heavy traffic – if your carpet gets atypical heavy traffic beyond normal foot travel, such as wheelchairs, walkers, or tricycles, etc., it may come loose, even if it was installed perfectly.
• moving your furniture around – if you are a DIY home decorator, and move your furniture around on a fairly consistent basis, this can cause the carpet to buckle or ripple, especially if you have heavy furniture.
• high humidity – big differences in humidity can cause stretching and shrinking beyond what a carpet is built to withstand.
• delamination – the latex that keeps the carpet backing intact has deteriorated and the carpet is starting to fall apart, a sign that inferior quality carpeting was used.
What to do? Don’t worry – you don’t need to replace the carpet, unless it’s truly poor quality carpet. Simply call a reputable carpet installer and have them come out and “re-stretch” your carpet. It’s a common repair job that involves pulling up the edges of the carpet, re-stretching it so it’s properly taut, trimming the excess, and re-securing the carpet in it’s new place!