A customer in Tampa asked me to skip the tack strips and just glue the carpet down

I was finishing a job in a condo near the bay last spring, and the owner came in to check the work. He pointed at the strips and said, 'Can't you just use adhesive? It'll be faster and cheaper.' I had to explain that skipping those strips would cause the carpet to bubble and pull apart in under a year. He wasn't happy, but I stood my ground. Has anyone else had a client push to cut corners on the basics?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake_black472h ago

Man, that's wild. Tack strips are literally the foundation, you can't just glue it. That's like asking a framer to skip the studs and just nail the drywall to the air. It might look okay for a month, but then you get those huge ripples and the seams come apart. Good on you for not budging, that save you both a massive callback headache.

the_william1h ago

Honestly, I used to think glue was fine until a job went south, so @blake_black47 is totally right.