I was always taught to gripper when double sticking but Ive noticed most people dont bother with the gripper, what is the best way?
Really how dya work that out. Always looks good to me short pin is what I use. And a must when doing that ever so horrible sisal and seagrass cack.
To get the same finish on gripper with pins in it you have to stretch the carpet / sisal / whatever over the pins. Simply because the pins point at a angle and the product will actually sit on top of the pins. If you give the product a 'kick' with the stretcher then the pins will rest themselves in the product. Now on a twin stick you should not be stretching the carpet, well the carpet ect will lye better on blank gripper.
Ok Matt see your point but on a patterned product how do you take out hook and bow without stretching I'm always giving it a kick and stretch doing a dura fit installation.
Yeah you can, I thought it was for felt back but I suppose its the same purpose when your double sticking
To straighten the pattern you need to do this before you glue out. get the carpet straight and stay tack of use heavy weight roller to keep in place.
heavy weight roller together with power stretcher mmmm don't really see that one working. My father and grand father did this old school style which was marking the pattern on the back with chalk and stretching it and tacking it temporarily to a piece of timber. Still works today as its what I do and when fitting dura fit I still kick in and tuck down using short pin gripper.
Jay, if you need to use a power stretcher on a carpet to straighten the pattern you have issue with the carpet ! I have done miles of durafit and NEVER had to use a power stretcher. A power stretcher is as is says "a stretcher" You are simply correcting the pattern not stretching the carpet. The Duralay system (twin stick) was designed around not using gripper and then advanced onto Blind gripper. Also Duralay was first designed to be installed on double sided tape as we had not developed a glue to bond the underlay back then.
I do believe that the NICF recomend the use of a power stretcher and you are only supposed to knee kick the last 3 foot. And besides when doing a 30m drop would you not want to use a power stretcher to aid the installation rather than smashing your knees to pieces, I use it in the sense that I can stretch it and tweak it and lock it into place.
Well shall we say "each to there own" mate! You have your way and i have mine, is either of us wrong? well in my eyes 'no' providing we end up with the same finish. PS- nicf etc..... Not sure if you know but the Durafit system was developed by my DAD, he designed /developed it and tested it with Duraly, he then went on to the development of takifier with Fball to replace the double sided tape and then onto developing blank gripper to improve the finish around the edge. He dropped using spiked gripper around 2 years previous to this. Going back to NICF im sure you know that my DAD was once the president of the NICF and originally started up the fitting training courses running at Britons / Duralay etc which eventually turned into FITA. In his years of being involved in the NICF and trying and testing again on a Durafit system stretching was never every recommended. Anyway, thats a bit of history on the development and design and recommended fitting instructions of Durafit system
Nice bit of history Matt I would like to meet your Dad infact I would like to get him to meet my Dad. My Dad has a library of info, pictures, drawings going back to the birth of Lino when my great great great grandfather and his brothers entered the industry. He won't let me near the library un supervised he keeps it under lock and key and is like a rabid dog if I go near the door. The trouble I have with what we've been disscusing is I never get given blank gripper when doing an installation on durafit, so I have to adapt, I do have a nice little tool for going round and creasing the carpet onto the gripper which also pushes it down onto the spikes. The stretching is only a little just enough to tuck down so its more of a tweak than a big kick.
Being trained on vinyl for 16 years my knowledge of carpet is very limited so to me your all speaking alien when talking can someone explain what blank gripper is to me, thanks
Blank gripper is gripper without the pins. Basically a smooth bit of wood that sits the same height as the underlay. You glue onto it on a twin stick method instead of stretching a carpet onto the pins.
