How to Get Wrinkles Out of Carpet Without a Stretcher

Carpet that's wrinkled is unsightly and unsafe. When sunlight rakes low across the carpeting, those ripples stand out even more. Wrinkled carpet is a trip hazard, and those wrinkles cause the carpet to wear even faster. The good news is that you can get rid of wrinkles in carpet without using a power stretcher.

Why Your Carpet Has Wrinkles

Wall-to-wall carpeting may develop wrinkles early on because of poor installation practices. The carpet may have not been stretched properly in the first place or attached correctly to the perimeter tack strips.

As time goes on, even well-installed carpeting can develop wrinkles. Carpeting often comes loose from the tack strips or the tack strips can detach from the flooring. Also, carpeting will stretch out due to repeated foot traffic over the years or from pushing heavy objects, such as sofas, across it.

Why It’s Important to Get Wrinkles Out of Carpet

• Safety: Wrinkles in the carpet are prominent trip hazards. Even minor wrinkles are high enough to catch the sole of a shoe and cause a person to fall.
• Appearance: Rippled carpeting detracts from the overall appearance of the room. Smoothing out the carpeting brings it back to its original, flat look.
• Door Swing: Doors that drag on carpeting can cause wrinkled carpeting, which in turn will impede the door swing.
• Durability: Wrinkles cause carpeting to wear at a faster rate. Wrinkles bear the brunt of foot traffic.

Do You Need to Use a Carpet Stretcher?

The best way to get wrinkles out of a carpet is to re-stretch it. Steaming, ironing, flattening, applying ice, and other popular fixes for wrinkled carpeting are ineffective at best and damaging at worst. Much like smoothing out a bedspread, you need to pull the carpeting outward from the edges to eliminate wrinkles.

Using a power stretcher is the best option because the stretcher pulls carpeting across the entire length and width of the room. But stretchers are expensive and they take practice to learn how to use them well.

You can stretch out carpeting using an inexpensive tool called a carpet knee kicker. Another method is to jump on a section of the carpet with enough momentum to force the carpet outward to the wall.

Safety Considerations

Using a carpet knee kicking tool or even simply working on your hands and knees can result in various discomforts. Use protection knee pads with any type of knee kicking tool or avoid the activity altogether. NIOSH recommends the use of a power stretcher as a safe alternative to a knee-kicking carpet tool.