Causes of Wrinkles in Carpet and How to Fix It

Wrinkles in the carpet are not only annoying, but it is a sign something is terribly wrong. Carpet doesn’t just get larger on its own. There is a direct cause for this to happen.

Wrinkles in Carpet

If you are home shopping and see a house where the carpet is bunched up or doesn’t quite fit, you should suspect an underlying water problem with the home. Carpets will stretch when they get very wet. Wrinkles in the carpet don’t happen as a normal course of carpet life.

There may be a water leak, possibly a broken pipe or a roof leak, that is causing the floor to stay wet. As the carpet sits in the very high room humidity or with water soaking it, the carpet will get bigger. This causes the carpet to no longer fit the room. Before you do anything to fix the carpet, you’ll need to find the source of the moisture. A home with a water leak or humidity problem will have a musty, mildew smell.

Once the source of the water has been found and repaired, allow the room and carpet to completely dry out. Once you’re sure the carpet and floor beneath it is completely dry, you can rent a carpet stretcher. Stretch the carpet and tack it down. Use a utility knife to cut away the excess carpet.

It is important that you stretch the carpet properly or else you’ll have wrinkles in the carpet again. There are lots of youtube videos that will teach you how a carpet should be stretched, so that problems don’t arise later on. Of course, be certain to find the underlying cause of the carpet wrinkling and have that problem fixed. If you’re lucky, it is because the original installer didn’t properly stretch it on installation.