About 1 year ago, we had a berber type carpet installed and the seams all had a hump over the seaming tape. We had the installers come back about a month after installation and they said there was nothing they could do about it and that in time it would go away as we walked on it. Well it hasn't and they are coming out again. What can I do and is this typical of a berber style carpet which is about 3/4" thick??? Thanks for any help.

 

It seams like the installers were in rush when they did your carpet. This happens when they seam the carpet, they don't leave a heavy object on the seam long enough. The usual solution is to open and redo the seaming but the problem with berber carpet is that they are difficult to seam without showing to begin with. If they try, they may actually worsen the seam. I'm afraid you may have to live with it. Could you hide the seam with let's a piece of furniture or an area rug?

 

For seam complaints you were right to have the installers come back and check them out. And most people get the same answer as you recieved. "It will walk out, give it time." There are proper ways to construct seams and most of the time these standards are not followed. On the flip side of that, certain carpets are more prone to show seams than others. Also seam placement and lighting will contribute to the visibility of seams. Understanding these factors, the question is: Was this a properly constructed seam and why is it visible?

To get a correct answer find a carpet inspector in your area. For a fee, he/she will come to your house and diagnose the cause and whether or not it can be corrected. You will need to determine whether this seam is worth the expense of course. But this would be the correct next step in a complaint process.

 

Properly stretched seams, especially in a low profile loop pile(berber) will show the highlighted seam. It is a natural and common characteristic with a properly stretched carpet.

There are things on the market these days to prevent the amount of highlighting and peaking, but not neccesarily eliminate the natural characteristc.

Using hot melt thermoplastic to edge seal both sides of the cut seam, has been the new idea, and actually works well at reducing this natural characteristic.

Using a low profile seam tape, over a hard surface(seam board), to get as much thermoplastic penetration up into the carpet backing helps a lot.

Peaked or highlighted seams in a synthetic backed tufted carpet are considered normal and not an installation defect.

The thing is, most installers don't use a pole stretcher as required by the carpet manufacturers, so by just knee kicking in the carpets, seam peaking or highlighting is not the problem with those installations, but wrinkles, buckles and backing delamination are big problems.

Seams should be place going into the light source, when they can, but not all layouts will allow this in every room.